Several biological processes, including cell migration, tissue morphogenesis, and cancer metastasis, are fundamentally physical in nature; each implicitly involves deformations driven by mechanical forces. Traction force microscopy (TFM) was initially developed to quantify the forces exerted by individual isolated cells in two-dimensional (2D) culture. Here, we extend this technique to estimate the traction forces generated by engineered three-dimensional (3D) epithelial tissues embedded within a surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM). This technique provides insight into the physical mechanisms that underlie tissue morphogenesis in 3D.
CITATION STYLE
Piotrowski, A. S., Varner, V. D., Gjorevski, N., & Nelson, C. M. (2015). Three-dimensional traction force microscopy of engineered epithelial tissues. Methods in Molecular Biology, 1189, 191–206. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1164-6_13
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