ABSTRACT
Rheology usually describes the behavior of materials whose mechanical properties are characterized by both elastic ad viscous components, like most of biological objects. The cytoskeleton of a cell is a system that integrates various molecules maintaining shape, integrity, and spatial organization of cells. The tensegrity theory describes any kind of structures composed of tensional and compressional components being in equilibrium. The tensegrity approach effectively predicts the mechanical behavior of various types of single molecules, cells, tissues, and whole organs. Large progress in biomechanics is a direct consequence of the development of techniques that enabled deformability measurements in living cells at a single-cell level. Studies of single-cell mechanical properties require atomic force microscopy (AFM) device working in force spectroscopy mode. The effect of cytoskeletal structure and organization on cellular elasticity can be explored by the depth-dependent analysis of mechanical properties. The stiffness tomography approach has been initially applied to study the 3D variability in distribution of Young's modulus in living neurons.
