{"doi":"10.1002/smtd.202200325","title":"Impedance‐Enabled Camera‐Free Intrinsic Mechanical Cytometry","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Mechanical properties of single cells are important label‐free biomarkers normally measured by expensive and complex imaging systems. To unlock this limit and allow mechanical properties comparable across different measurement platforms, camera‐free intrinsic mechanical cytometry (CFIMC) is proposed for on‐the‐fly measurement of two major intrinsic mechanical parameters, that is, Young's modulus <jats:italic>E</jats:italic> and fluidity β, of single cells. CFIMC adopts a framework that couples the impedance electrodes with the constriction channel spatially, so that the impedance signals contain the dynamic deformability information of the cell squeezing through the constriction channel. Deformation of the cell is thus extracted from the impedance signals and used to derive the intrinsic mechanical parameters. With reasonably high throughput (&gt;500 cells min<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>), CFIMC can successfully reveal the mechanical difference in cancer and normal cells (i.e., human breast cell lines MCF‐10A, MCF‐7, and MDA‐MB‐231), living and fixed cells, and pharmacological perturbations of the cytoskeleton. It is further found that 1 µM level concentration of Cytochalasin B may be the threshold for the treated cells to induce a significant cytoskeleton effect reflected by the mechanical parameters. It is envisioned that CFIMC provides an alternative avenue for high‐throughput and real‐time single‐cell intrinsic mechanical analysis.</jats:p>","journal":"Small Methods","year":2022,"id":670934,"datarank":1.2778474172880736,"base_score":3.7376696182833684,"endowment":3.7376696182833684,"self_citation_contribution":0.5606504427425053,"citation_network_contribution":0.7171969745455683,"self_endowment_contribution":0.5606504427425053,"citer_contribution":0.7171969745455683,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":41,"citer_count":31,"citers_with_citation_signal":24,"citers_with_endowment":24,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1752676,"name":"Huichao Chai","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1752677,"name":"Weihua He","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1640874,"name":"Fei Liang","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":762922,"name":"Zhen Cheng","orcid":"0000-0002-6146-7654","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1479516,"name":"Wenhui Wang","orcid":"0000-0002-5884-6098","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1752675,"name":"Yongxiang Feng","orcid":"0000-0003-1001-0854","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Impedance‐Enabled Camera‐Free Intrinsic Mechanical Cytometry","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Mechanical properties of single cells are important label‐free biomarkers normally measured by expensive and complex imaging systems. To unlock this limit and allow mechanical properties comparable across different measurement platforms, camera‐free intrinsic mechanical cytometry (CFIMC) is proposed for on‐the‐fly measurement of two major intrinsic mechanical parameters, that is, Young's modulus <jats:italic>E</jats:italic> and fluidity β, of single cells. CFIMC adopts a framework that couples the impedance electrodes with the constriction channel spatially, so that the impedance signals contain the dynamic deformability information of the cell squeezing through the constriction channel. Deformation of the cell is thus extracted from the impedance signals and used to derive the intrinsic mechanical parameters. With reasonably high throughput (&gt;500 cells min<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>), CFIMC can successfully reveal the mechanical difference in cancer and normal cells (i.e., human breast cell lines MCF‐10A, MCF‐7, and MDA‐MB‐231), living and fixed cells, and pharmacological perturbations of the cytoskeleton. It is further found that 1 µM level concentration of Cytochalasin B may be the threshold for the treated cells to induce a significant cytoskeleton effect reflected by the mechanical parameters. It is envisioned that CFIMC provides an alternative avenue for high‐throughput and real‐time single‐cell intrinsic mechanical analysis.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":3.7376696182833684,"endowment":3.7376696182833684,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"35595712","pmcid":null,"openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4281254839","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","grant_id":"62174096","title":null},{"funder_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","grant_id":"21727813","title":null},{"funder_name":"One-Thousand Young Talent Program of China","grant_id":"","title":null},{"funder_name":"One-Thousand Young Talent Program of China","grant_id":"","title":null}],"total_grants":4,"fwci":2.722,"citation_percentile":0.90920778,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2022,"count":2},{"year":2023,"count":15},{"year":2024,"count":11},{"year":2025,"count":10},{"year":2026,"count":3}],"oa_status":"closed","license":"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/smtd.202200325","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/smtd.202200325","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1002/smtd.202200325","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35595712","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Microfluidic and Bio-sensing Technologies","Cellular Mechanics and Interactions","3D Printing in Biomedical Research","Cell Line","Elastic Modulus","Electric Impedance","Electrodes","Humans","Single-Cell Analysis"],"mesh_terms":["Cell Line","Electrodes","Humans","Electric Impedance","Elastic Modulus","Single-Cell Analysis"],"keywords":["Cytometry","Cytochalasin D","Mechanical impedance","Materials science","Mechanotransduction","Electrical impedance","Cytoskeleton","Biophysics","Constriction","Biomedical engineering","Nanotechnology","Cell","Chemistry","Physics","Biology","Cell biology","Medicine","Flow cytometry","Cell mechanics","Intrinsic Properties","Single-cell Analysis","Impedance Signals"],"sdg_mappings":[],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-16T00:37:54.021045Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}