Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting | Singapore

Mechanobiology of Disease

Poster Abstracts

2-POS Board 2 Unrevealing Nanomechanical Signatures of Epithelial and Connective Tissue of Oral Submucous Fibrosis Anji Anura 1 , Dabanjan Das 1 , Mousumi Pal 2 , Ranjan R. Paul 2 , Jyotirmoy Chatterjee 1 . 1 Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, 2 Gurunanak Institute of Dental Science and Research, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Deciphering altered biomechanical profiles in oral cancer and precancer is important for detailed understanding of malignancy which could have implications in diagnosis and treatment. In this work PeakForce quantitative nanomechanicsatomic force microscopy (PF-QNM-AFM) was performed to investigate nano-mechanical attributes as well as ultra-structural changes in epithelium and connective tissue of normal oral mucosa, submucous fibrosis. The topography obtained from normal mucosa demonstrated irregular and loosely arranged collagen fibres with regular bandwidth and periodicity (67 nm) in lamina propria. However, in oral submucous fibrosis, collagen fibres were arranged in bundles with uneven thickness and irregular periodicity indicating abnormal collagen synthesis. The nano-mechanical analysis indicated that OSF had higher Young’s modulus (20-40 kPa)than normal oral tissue (1-20 kPa). Moreover, connective tissue of OSF showed a high adhesion force and reduced deformation indicating high stiffness due to compact collagen I deposition in the extracelluar matrix as confirmed from immunohistochemical and RT-PCR study. The epithelium of oral submucous fibrosis was found to have high Young’s modulus(3-10 kPa) , stiffness, adhesion force and reduced deformation to that of normal oral epithelium (0.5- 4 kPa) which might be attributed to associated epithelial atrophy. Thus, the present study elucidates altered mechanobiological attributes of oral precancer which are corroborated with ultrastructural changes and relevant gene expression. In the context of integrative mechanotyping in cancer study, the present study will be contributory in holistic understanding of oral precancer pathology, its relation to malignant transformation and providing essential insight for developing therapeutic measures.

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