Table 2 |.

Summary of selected approaches to characterize mechanical cell–matrix interactions

Methods	ECM	Cells	Measurements	Notes	Refs.
AFM	4,5-dimethoxy 2-nitrobenzyl-aminothiol (DMNBAT)-hyaluronic acid (HA)-methacrylate hydrogels	U373-MG human glioblastoma cells	ECM stiffness	AFM tips contact the sample surface, where small deflections provide nanoscale surface topology.	113
Optical tweezers	fibronectin	Epithelial cells	Forces exerted on cells by the ECM	Energy from highly focused lasers is used to manipulate objectives and measure their force–distance responses.	112
TFM	Collagen I	Epicardial cells	Velocity and displacement	Mechanical sensors (that is, fluorescent beads) are seeded in the substrate and are tracked periodically.	104
AFM	Collagen I, III, IV, V and VI	Fibroblast	Matrix topography and stiffness		80
Light-sheet photonic force optical coherence elastography	Polyacrylamide gels	NIH-3T3 fibroblasts	Interacting force and elasticity		108
Optical tweezers and Brillouin microscopy	Polyacrylamide gels	Human glioblastoma cells	Interacting force	Light scattering within elastic material is combined with traditional confocal microscopy.
Traction force optical coherence microscopy	Matrigel	NIH-3T3 fibroblasts	Traction force, velocity and displacement fields		109
TFM	RGD-modified agarose hydrogels	Murine mesenchymal stem cells	Cell traction force and matrix elastic modulus		107
TFM	Collagen I	NIH-3T3 fibroblasts	Mechanical strain		99
Two-layer elastography TFM	Polyacrylamide gels	Physarum polycephalum plasmodia	Cell–substratum deformation and traction force mapping	TFM that also accounts for Poisson’s ratio (deformation perpendicular to load)	110