The nanomorphology of cell surfaces of adhered osteoblasts

• Christian Voelkner,
• Mirco Wendt,
• Regina Lange,
• Max Ulbrich,
• Martina Gruening,
• Susanne Staehlke,
• Barbara Nebe,
• Ingo Barke and
• Sylvia Speller

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 242–256, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.20

• present a comprehensive characterization of the 3D nanomorphology of living, as well as fixed, osteoblastic cells using scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM), which is a nanoprobing method that largely avoids mechanical perturbations. Dynamic ruffles are observed, manifesting themselves in

• capability of apical membrane features and fluctuation dynamics in aiding the assessment of adhesion and migration properties on a single-cell basis. Keywords: cell adhesion; membrane fluctuations; osteoblast; plasma membrane nanomorphology; scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM); Introduction

• remain obscure. A localized ion current flowing through a nanopipette probe represents a suitable non-invasive interaction, which is exploited in scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) [19][20][21]. SICM is well suited to probe soft and responsive surfaces, such as those of living cells. The applied