Investigation of the Topography and Mechanical Properties of the System Living Cell–Hydrogel Using Scanning Ion-Conductance Microscopy

At present, hydrogels are attracting increasing interest due to their unique characteristics for use in various fields, such as regenerative medicine, 3D cell culturing, and drug delivery. The main challenge in applying hydrogels in tissue engineering is the accurate assessment of their mechanical characteristics. In this work, a non-invasive method of scanning ion-conductance microscopy (SICM) is used to determine the stiffness of living human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells cultured on a soft, self-assembling hydrogel composed of the Fmoc-FF peptide. The Young’s modulus for SH-SY5Y cells decreases with increasing substrate stiffness, with values of 1015 and 750 Pa on a Petri dish and Fmoc-FF hydrogel, respectively. This method enables simultaneous investigation of the stiffness of living cells and soft hydrogels, which is promising in the field of regenerative medicine.