Abstract
Living cells are constantly exchanging momentum with their surroundings.
So far, there is no consensus regarding how cells respond to such
external stimuli, although it reveals much about their internal
structures, motility as well as the emergence of disorders. Here, we
report that twelve cell lines, ranging from healthy fibroblasts to
cancer cells, hold a ubiquitous double power-law viscoelastic relaxation
compatible with the fractional Kelvin-Voigt viscoelastic model. Atomic
Force Microscopy measurements in time domain were employed to determine
the mechanical parameters, namely, the fast and slow relaxation
exponents, the crossover timescale between power law regimes, and the
cell stiffness. These cell-dependent quantities show strong correlation
with their collective migration and invasiveness properties. Beyond
that, the crossover timescale sets the fastest timescale for cells to
perform their biological functions.
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