Figure 5.

(A) AFM topography image of an MDCK cell, where the red cross represents the measurement site. (B) AFM measurement of the cells with a sphere probe (radius 2.5 μm), where the area in red represent the probe–cell contact size. (C) The probe–cell interaction force and AFM displacement (z) profile during the force–relaxation process, where $F_i$ is the probe–cell interaction force at the beginning of the relaxation process (i.e., the end of the indenting process), and $F_f$ is the force at the end of the relaxation process.