AFM force spectroscopy as a powerful tool to address material design for biomedical applications. A review

Force Spectroscopy (FS), which is one of the operating modes of Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) technique proven to be useful in many biological and medical applications, such as cancer cells recognition. Currently, many scientific institutions carry on research on the Young’s modulus of individual cancer cells in order to detect the disease at an early stage of its development. As a result of the growing interest in the use of force spectroscopy to study cells’ mechanic, this review summarizes new applications of this method to study changes in the physical and chemical properties of cells under the influence of external stimuli of different origins. The work is divided into four research areas, in which the use of AFM force spectroscopy was used to explain phenomena occurring at the early stages of intracellular organization changes. Research areas presented in this manuscript focuses on detailed description of the effect of manifold external stimuli on cells, such as: (i) cell aging, (ii) active ingredients used in the cosmetics industry to improve skin condition, (iii) nanoparticles used in biomedicine, and (iv) micro- and nano-structures of topography on the surface of substrates used for cell cultures. This review is based on a critical analysis of the latest literature reports (seven of which were created with Author’s contribution) describing the use of force spectroscopy as an effective tool to study the mechanical properties of living cells.