A computer model for investigating the biomechanical effects of radiation exposure on pathological and non-pathological living human cells

The cellular response to radiation insult and studies have been carried out to investigate aspects of the cytoskeleton and the force response of the cell when probed by an AFM. Confirmed for the first time that there was a statistically significant difference for the PNT2 and PC3 cell lines in response to probing with the AFM tip, and that time was eliminated a possible influencing factor in the short term (1 hour) for the force response. Showed that the Hertz model is not sufficient for distances greater than 500nm due to the strain hardening effect for biological cells and that the biological cells non-linear force response becomes marked after the 500nm region. The orientation of actin was investigated and a bimodal variation was statistical significant, although the larger tendency was for a 90 degree separation there was indications that earlier theoretical work by Pollard, 2008 was present. The importance of the contact point when considering the cell lines PNT2, DU145 and PC3 and greater than 500nm indentation is shown and four different methods are tested and the most robust of these chosen as the method for the distance and cell lines involved. That being ‘line projection’ method created by the author. A method that normalises the data for AFM force curves is presented, the method minimises the contact point error at the same time and therefore provides biologists with a way to test cell lines using standard normal population tests.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Liverpool John Moores University

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Johnston, GJ

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lilley, F
• Murphy, M
• Burton, D

• QA76 Computer software
• RB Pathology

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.24377/LJMU.t.00006668

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk:6668