Microcantilever matrix sensor fabrication for cell traction force measurement

A new method to fabricate high-aspect-ratio Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microcantilever matrix using polycarbonate track-etched (PCTE) membranes as templates is proposed and the fabrication process is studied. The high-aspect-ratio microcantilever matrix serves as Biological Micro-Electromechanical Systems (BioMEMS) sensors for detecting cellular nano/microforces and studying in vitro cell mechanics. By choosing appropriate membranes different lengths and diameters of the microcantilevers and the densities of the microcantilever matrixes can be fabricated to afford different precision requirement. After surface treatment, closely spaced vertical microcantilever matrix was designed to encourage cells to attach and spread across multiple microcantilevers, and to bend the microcantilevers as the cells locomote on the top surface. By processing the confocal fluorescence microscopy images of the deformations of microcantilevers, we can depict the cell traction force map. The experiment results show that the method is effective and the measurement resolution can reach in nN/μm scale.