The broad objective of this research is to examine the relationship between the cellular micromechanical environment and disease progression in cancer. The mechanical stiffness of cancerous tissue is a key feature that distinguishes it from normal tissue and thus facilitates its detection clinically. While numerous inroads have been achieved toward elucidating molecular mechanisms that underlie diseases such as cancer, quantitative characterization of associated cellular mechanical properties and biophysical attributes remains largely incomplete. To this end, the present research provides insight into the following questions: (1) What is the effect of extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness and architecture on internal cancer cell rheology and cytoskeletal organization? (2) What are the integrated effects of ECM stiffness and cell metastatic potential on the intracellular rheology and morphology of breast cancer cells? (3) What are the integrated effects of ECM stiffness, ECM architecture, and cell metastatic potential on the motility of breast cancer cells? To examine these phenomena, the present research utilizes a multidisciplinary engineering approach that integrates experimental rheology, theoretical mechanics, confocal microscopy, computational algorithms, and experimental cell biology. Briefly, genetically altered cancer-mimicking cells are cultured within synthetic ECMs of varying mechanical stiffness and structure, where they are then observed using time-lapsed confocal microscopy. Image analyses and computational algorithms are then employed to extract measures of cell migration speed and intracellular stiffness via particle-tracking microrheology techniques. Major results show that ECM stiffness elicits an intracellular mechanical response only within the framework of physiologically relevant matrix environments and that a key cell-matrix attachment protein (the integrin) plays an essential role in this phenomenon. Additional results indicate that a well-known breast cancer-associated biomarker (ErbB2) is responsible for sensitizing mammary cells to ECM stiffness. Finally, results also show that a switch in ECM architecture significantly hinders the migratory capacity of ErbB2-associated cells, which may explain why the ErbB2 biomarker is detected with much higher frequency in early stage breast cancer than in later stage invasive and metastatic cancers. In total, these findings inform the fields of mechanobiology and cancer biology by systematically linking cell rheology, cell motility, matrix mechanics, and disease progression in cancer. / text

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are bone marrow derived multipotent cells with the ability to self-renew and differentiate into multiple connective cell lineages. In vivo, MSCs travel from the bone-marrow to the inflammatory sites and actively participate in remodeling and regeneration process under the influence of soluble growth factors. Due to these inherent properties, MSCs have emerged as an ideal candidate for diverse regenerative therapeutic applications. The development of MSC-based therapies requires in vitro expansion of MSCs; however, MSC expansion results in phenotypical changes that have limited its efficacy upon reintroduction in vivo. In order to increase the efficacy of MSC-based therapeutics, it is critical for us to improve the current understanding of MSC interactions with its niche specific factors and explore new methods to enhance MSC function in vivo. We used tumor conditioned media, which contains soluble factors secreted by tumor cells in culture (TCM), and inflammatory niche-specific soluble factors, such as platelet derived growth factor (PDGF) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), to characterize the mechanical response of MSCs. The intracellular mechanical properties of MSCs were dramatically altered in response to soluble factors and MSCs displayed cytosolic stiffening in response to TCM and TGF-β1. Although PDGF treated cells did not elicit any mechanical response, blocking PDGF signaling with a small molecule inhibitor reversed the stiffening response in TGF-β1 treated cells, indicating crosstalk between these two pathways is essential in TGF-β1 mediated cell stiffening. Furthermore, a genome-wide microarray analysis revealed TGF-β1 dependent regulation of cytoskeletal actin-binding protein (ABP) genes. Actin crosslinking and bundling protein genes, which regulate cytosolic rheology through changes in semiflexible actin polymer meshworks, were upregulated with TGF-β1 treatment. Since TGF-β1 treatment profoundly altered the MSC phenotype after relatively short exposure times, we sought to understand if pretreated cells could sustain these enhanced characteristics leading to higher efficacy in vivo. We found that MSCs pretreated with TGF-β1 displayed enhanced adhesive properties while maintaining the expression profile of surface adhesion molecules even after removal of stimulus. Additionally, pretreated MSCs exposed to lineage specific induction media, demonstrated superior differentiation potential along multiple lineages. Based on the large number of sustained changes, TGF-β1 pretreated cells were used to treat full thickness skin wounds for in vivo wound healing model to determine their therapeutic efficacy. TGF-β1 pretreated MSCs increased wound closure rate and displayed enhanced migration of MSCs towards the center of the wound compared to the control cells. In conclusion, soluble factor pretreated MSCs with altered mechanical properties displayed significantly improved cell functions leading to highly efficient tissue regeneration in vivo. Mechanical priming of MSCs with niche specific factors prior to transplantation can become a viable strategy to maximize their therapeutic potential.

In this dissertation, we developed cell stiffness as a biomarker in ovarian cancer for the purpose of grading metastatic potential. By measuring single cell stiffness with atomic force microscopy and quantifying in vitro invasiveness of healthy and cancerous ovarian cells, we demonstrated that cancerous ovarian cells have reduced stiffness compared to the healthy ones and invasive ovarian cancer cells are more deformable than noninvasive ovarian cancer cells. The difference in cell stiffness between two genetically similar cell lines was attributed to actin-mediated cytoskeletal remodeling as revealed by comparative gene expression profile analysis, and was further confirmed by fluorescent visualization of actin cytoskeletal structures. The actin cytoskeletons were innovatively quantified and correlates with cell stiffness distributions, further implicating actin-mediated cytoskeletal remodeling in stiffness alteration from the perspective of structure-property relationship. The correlation between stiffness and metastatic potential was also demonstrated in pancreatic cancer cell line AsPC-1, which shows reduced invasivess and increased stiffness upon treatment with N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), a well known antioxidant, reactive oxygen species (ROS), scavenger and glutathione precursor. The correlation between cell stiffness and metastatic potential as demonstrated in ovarian and pancreatic cancer cells indicated that mechanical stiffness may be a useful biomarker to evaluate the relative metastatic potential of ovarian and perhaps other types of cancer cells, and might be useful clinically with the development of rapid biomechanical assaying techniques. We have also investigated the stiffness evolution through progression of the cell cycle for the healthy ovarian phenotype and the invasive cancer ovarian phenotype, and found that the healthy phenotype at G1 phase are significantly stiffer than other single cells except the invasive phenotype at late mitosis; other groups are not significantly different from each other. We have also investigated intracellular heterogeneity and mechanical nonlinearity in single cells. To this end, we developed a methodology to analyze the deformation-dependent mechanical nonlinearity using a pointwise Hertzian method, and tested the method on ultrathin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films which underwent extremely large strains (greater than 50%). Mechanical stiffening due to large strain and geometrical confinement were observed. The onset of nonlinearity or mechanical stiffening occurs at 45% of the film thickness, the geometry induced stiffening causes an increase in stiffness which shows a strong power law dependence on film thickness. By applying the pointwise Hertzian method on stiffness measurements with AFM that were collected on living cells, we also investigated the nonlinear and heterogeneous mechanics of single cells, since attachment of cells to stiff substrate during indentation may impact their mechanical responses. Even under natural biological conditions, cells confined in narrow spaces may experience heightened mechanical stiffness. Through indentation-dependent force mapping, analysis of the local cell stiffness demonstrated spatial variation. The results indicated that the mechanical properties of single cells are highly nonlinear and are dependent upon the subcellular features under the applied force as well as the dimensions of the cellular material. We identified single cell stiffness as a potential biomarker of the metastatic potential in ovarian cancer, and quantified the effect of geometrical confinement on cell mechanics. The results presented in this dissertation not only made contributions to the development of accurate, non-invasive clinical methods to estimate metastatic potential of ovarian and perhaps other types of cancer, but also shed light on the intracellular mechanical information by developing new techniques to quantify the effect of geometry on cell mechanics.

abstract: Mechanical properties of cells are important in maintaining physiological functions of biological systems. Quantitative measurement and analysis of mechanical properties can help understand cellular mechanics and its functional relevance and discover physical biomarkers for diseases monitoring and therapeutics. This dissertation presents a work to develop optical methods for studying cell mechanics which encompasses four applications. Surface plasmon resonance microscopy based optical method has been applied to image intracellular motions and cell mechanical motion. This label-free technique enables ultrafast imaging with extremely high sensitivity in detecting cell deformation. The technique was first applied to study intracellular transportation. Organelle transportation process and displacement steps of motor protein can be tracked using this method. The second application is to study heterogeneous subcellular membrane displacement induced by membrane potential (de)polarization. The application can map the amplitude and direction of cell deformation. The electromechanical coupling of mammalian cells was also observed. The third application is for imaging electrical activity in single cells with sub-millisecond resolution. This technique can fast record actions potentials and also resolve the fast initiation and propagation of electromechanical signals within single neurons. Bright-field optical imaging approach has been applied to the mechanical wave visualization that associated with action potential in the fourth application. Neuron-to-neuron viability of membrane displacement was revealed and heterogeneous subcellular response was observed. All these works shed light on the possibility of using optical approaches to study millisecond-scale and sub-nanometer-scale mechanical motions. These studies revealed ultrafast and ultra-small mechanical motions at the cellular level, including motor protein-driven motions and electromechanical coupled motions. The observations will help understand cell mechanics and its biological functions. These optical approaches will also become powerful tools for elucidating the interplay between biological and physical functions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2016

Neste trabalho estudamos a interação de dois tipos de nanopartículas de prata metálica, obtidas pelo processo de poliol (IQUSP) e pelo método eletrolítico (Khemia®), em células de músculo liso. Um extenso trabalho de caracterização foi realizado, descrevendo a natureza físico-química dessas nanopartículas. Medidas de absorção óptica mostraram que as nanopartículas exibem bandas suaves em torno de 400 nm, região do azul do espectro eletromagnético, devido à ressonância dos plasmons de superfície, evidenciando a tendência à agregação com o tempo. Microscopia eletrônica de transmissão foi realizada para obter as imagens das nanopartículas em micrografias. Histogramas foram construídos para determinar o tamanho das NPs e o índice de polidispersividade. Espectros de EDS foram obtidos para a caracterização química das amostras. Difratogramas de raios X foram obtidos para as AgNPs. Os picos de difração foram indexados e revelaram uma única fase cristalina da prata, com estrutura cúbica e estado de oxidação, Ag0. Com o auxílio desses difratogramas, foram calculados o parâmetro de rede e a distância interplanar dos planos de difração. Utilizando a equação de Scherrer e um ajuste gaussiano dos picos de Ag mostrados nos difratogramas de raios X, foi possível obter o tamanho do cristalito para nanopartículas IQUSP. Experimentos de DLS mostraram distribuição de número monomodal para AgNPs Khemia® e, para AgNPs IQUSP lavadas, distribuição bimodal, estimando-se a distribuição de número e tamanho. Os resultados mostraram que a distribuição dominante é sempre para raios menores, sugerindo partículas menores que se agregam com o tempo e formam maiores dimensões. Resultados de SAXS mostraram que as amostras fornecem boa intensidade de espalhamento. Utilizando modelos teóricos foram calculados o raio médio da distribuição, polidispersividade e raio de giro. Os dados revelaram que as nanopartículas IQUSP possuem um raio maior que as AgNPs Khemia® e não apresentaram agregação. Em contrapartida, AgNPs Khemia® apresentaram maior agregação, com polidispersividade relativa de 72%. Para AgNPs IQ--USP, análises de SAXS forneceram tamanho de partícula comparável a TEM e bastante diferente de DLS. As medidas de SAXS para AgNPs Khemia® mostram diferenças com as medidas de TEM e DLS. Ficou evidente o efeito da agregação, que tem influências desde o preparo das amostras até o tempo de realização das medidas. Testes de citotocixidade e estudos de análise morfológica por microscopia de fluorescência evidenciaram as características citotóxicas de cada nanopartícula. Os resultados apresentados pela análise morfológica realizada com microscopia de fluorescência concordam com os testes de citotoxicidade. AgNPs IQUSP mostraram alta toxicidade até a concentração 9.37 mg/mL, onde as células são apresentadas com fragmentação nuclear. Em concentrações mais baixas, as AgNPs IQUSP exibiram características morfológicas comparáveis ao grupo controle. Por sua vez, AgNPs Khemia® mostram alta toxicidade até a concentração 1.37 mg/mL, com índice IC50 variando na faixa de 1.3 a 6.7 mg/mL. Foi possível observar que concentrações mais altas induzem à fragmentação nuclear, desencadeando processos como apoptose e necrose. Experimentos utilizando a técnica de OMTC demonstraram que as diferentes concentrações de nanopartículas de prata podem modificar a rigidez celular. Isto é evidenciado quando comparamos o grupo controle com os demais grupos, com as diferentes concentrações de NPs. Para concentrações mais altas de nanopartículas, verificou-se um aumento da viscoelasticidade. Os dois tipos de nanopartículas estudadas apresentaram mudanças nas propriedades mecânicas, mas as AgNPs Khemia® apresentaram um maior aumento na viscoelasticidade nas diferentes concentrações de NPs. Essa mudança na viscoelasticidade foi explicada como sendo devido à maior disponibilidade do cálcio, liberado por células apoptóticas, o qual é utilizado no complexo miosina-actina para gerar contração muscular. / In this work we study the interaction of two types of metallic silver nanoparticles, obtained by the polyol process (IQUSP) and the electrolytic method (Khemia®), in smooth muscle cells. An extensive characterization work was carried out, describing the physico-chemical nature of these nanoparticles. Optical absorption measurements showed that nanoparticles exhibit smooth bands around 400 nm, the blue region of the electromagnetic spectrum, due to the resonance of the surface plasmons, evidencing the tendency to aggregate with time. Transmission electron microscopy was performed to obtain images of the nanoparticles in micrographs. Histograms were constructed to determine the size of NPs and the index of polydispersity. EDS spectra were obtained for the chemical characterization of the samples. X-ray diffraction patterns were obtained for the AgNPs. The diffraction peaks have been indexed and showed a single crystal layer of silver, with cubic structure and oxidation state, Ag0. By means of these diffractograms, the network parameter and the interplanar distance of the diffraction planes were calculated. Using the Scherrer equation and a Gaussian fit of the Ag peaks shown in the X-ray diffractograms, it was possible to obtain the crystallite size for IQ-USP nanoparticles. DLS experiments showed monomodal number distribution for Khemia® AgNPs and, for washed IQUSP AgNPs, bimodal distribution, estimating the number and size distribution. The results showed that the dominant distribution is always for smaller rays, suggesting smaller particles that aggregate with time and form larger dimensions. SAXS results showed that the samples provide good scattering intensity. Using the theoretical models, the average radius of the distribution, polydispersity and radius of gyration were calculated. The data revealed that the IQUSP nanoparticles have a larger radius than the Khemia® and did not show aggregation. In contrast, Khemia® AgNPs showed higher aggregation, with 72% relative polydispersity. For IQ-USP AgNPs, SAXS analyzes provided particle size comparable to TEM and quite different from DLS. SAXS measurements for Khemia® AgNPs show differences with TEM and DLS measurements. It was evident the effect of the aggregation that has influences from the sample preparation until the time of performing the measurements. Cytotoxicity tests and morphological analysis studies by fluorescence microscopy evidenced the cytotoxic characteristics of each nanoparticle. The results presented by the morphological analysis performed with fluorescence microscopy agree with the cytotoxicity tests. IQ-USP nanoparticles showed high toxicity up to the concentration of 9.37 mg/mL, where the cells are presented with nuclear fragmentation. At lower concentrations, the IQUSP AgNPs exhibited morphological characteristics comparable to the control group. In addition, Khemia® AgNPs show high toxicity up to the concentration of 1.37 mg/mL, with IC50 in the range of 1.3 to 6.7 mg/mL. It was possible to observe that higher concentrations induce nuclear fragmentation, triggering processes such as apoptosis and necrosis. Experiments using the OMTC technique demonstrated that different concentrations of silver nanoparticles can modify cell stiffness. This is evidenced when we compare the control group with the other groups, with the different concentrations of NPs. For higher concentrations of nanoparticles, there was an increase in viscoelasticity. The two types of nanoparticles studied showed changes in mechanical properties, but Khemia® AgNPs showed a greater increase in viscoelasticity at different concentrations. This change in viscoelasticity was explained to be due to the increased availability of calcium, released by apoptotic cells, which is used in the myosin-actin complex to generate muscle contraction.

This thesis presents work on investigations into the mechanical properties of connective tissue. A model system of hydrogels was used to investigate how volume change through water flow is coupled to relaxation. This was done using digital image correlation (DIC) and a custom built setup. It was found, in hydrogels, that water loss is directly coupled to an increase in tension and water intake is directly coupled to tension relaxation. The experimental setup was tested by investigating the mechanical properties of the well known material polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and the novel materials of carbon nanotube (CNT) elastomers, cholesteric liquid crystal elastomers (CLCEs), and 3D polydomain liquid crystal elastomers (3DLCEs). The setup accurately demonstrated the incompressibility of PDMS, even at short time scales, and demonstrated how DIC can map the inhomogeneity of material by locating clusters of CNTs in CNT elastomers by how they deform. Novel results for 3DLCEs were also found, where it was discovered that there is a softening of the bulk modulus at small time scales resulting in a volume increase following deformation, the bulk modulus then recovers and there is over all no volume change. This is in stark contrast to the typical case, where it is the shear modulus that becomes comparable to the bulk modulus, resulting in increased volume. A theoretical investigation was carried out into critical damping in viscoelastic oscillators, where the aim was to apply to the findings to connective tissue. The fractional Maxwell model and zener model where both solved for, where it was found that damping decreases as the material becomes more solid and the peak of critical damping becomes broader. Finally, investigations into how strain relates to the viscoelastic properties of connective tissue were carried out on horse tendon and rat fascia. How relaxation changes was determined through the relaxation constant, where a large constant means it takes the sample longer to relax and it is more solid like. It was found, that in general, the relaxation constant increases quickly with an imposed strain and then either stabilises or increases more slowly. This growth of relaxation constant also occurs during the initial stages of tissue injury, where irreversible deformation occurs.

Cell migration performs a critical function in numerous physiological processes, including tissue homeostasis or wound healing after tissue injury, as well as pathological processes that include malignant progression of cancer. The efficiency of cell migration and invasion appears to be based on the mechano-phenotype of the cytoskeleton. The properties of the cytoskeleton depend on internal cytoskeletal and external environmental factors. A reason for this are connections between the cell and its local matrix microenvironment, which are established by cell-matrix adhesion receptors. Upon activation, focal adhesion proteins such as PINCH1 are recruited to sites where focal adhesions form. PINCH1 specifically couples through interactions with ILK, which binds to cell matrix receptors and the actomyosin cytoskeleton. However, the role of PINCH1 in cell mechanics regulating cellular motility in 3D collagen matrices is still unclear. PINCH1 is thought to facilitate 3D motility by regulating cellular mechanical properties, such as stiffness. In this study, PINCH1 wild-type and knock-out cells were examined for their ability to migrate in dense extracellular 3D matrices. Indeed, PINCH1 wild-type cells migrated more numerously and deeper in 3D matrices, compared to knock-out cells. Moreover, cellular deformability was determined, e.g., elastic modulus (stiffness). PINCH1 knockout cells are more deformable (compliable) than PINCH1 wild-type cells. Migration of both PINCH1−/− cells and PINCH1fl/fl cells was decreased by Latrunculin A inhibition of actin polymerization, suggesting that actin cytoskeletal differences are not responsible for the discrepancy in invasiveness of the two cell types. However, the mechanical phenotype of PINCH1−/− cells may be reflected by Latrunculin A treatment of PINCH1fl/fl cells, as they exhibit resembling deformability to untreated PINCH1−/− cells. Moreover, an apparent mismatch exists between the elongation of the long axis and the contraction of the short axis between PINCH1fl/fl cells and PINCH1−/− cells following Latrunculin A treatment. There is evidence of this indicating a shift in the proxy values for Poisson’s ratio in PINCH1−/− cells compared with PINCH1fl/fl cells. This is probably attributable to modifications in cytoskeletal architecture. The non-muscle myosin II inhibitor Blebbistatin also reduced the cell invasiveness in 3D extracellular matrices but instead caused a stiffening of the cells. Finally, PINCH1 is apparently essential for providing cellular mechanical stiffness through the actin cytoskeleton, which regulates 3D motility.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are a potential predictive surrogate marker for disease monitoring. Due to the sparse knowledge about their phenotype and its changes during cancer progression and treatment response, CTC isolation remains challenging. Here we focused on the mechanical characterization of circulating non-hematopoietic cells from breast cancer patients to evaluate its utility for CTC detection. For proof of premise, we used healthy peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), human MDA-MB 231 breast cancer cells and human HL-60 leukemia cells to create a CTC model system. For translational experiments CD45 negative cells—possible CTCs—were isolated from blood samples of patients with mamma carcinoma. Cells were mechanically characterized in the optical stretcher (OS). Active and passive cell mechanical data were related with physiological descriptors by a random forest (RF) classifier to identify cell type specific properties. Cancer cells were well distinguishable from PBMC in cell line tests. Analysis of clinical samples revealed that in PBMC the elliptic deformation was significantly increased compared to non-hematopoietic cells. Interestingly, non-hematopoietic cells showed significantly higher shape restoration. Based on Kelvin–Voigt modeling, the RF algorithm revealed that elliptic deformation and shape restoration were crucial parameters and that the OS discriminated non-hematopoietic cells from PBMC with an accuracy of 0.69, a sensitivity of 0.74, and specificity of 0.63. The CD45 negative cell population in the blood of breast cancer patients is mechanically distinguishable from healthy PBMC. Together with cell morphology, the mechanical fingerprint might be an appropriate tool for marker-free CTC detection.

The migration and invasion of cancer cells through 3D confined extracellular matrices is coupled to cell mechanics and the mechanics of the extracellular matrix. Cell mechanics is mainly determined by both the mechanics of the largest organelle in the cell, the nucleus, and the cytoskeletal architecture of the cell. Hence, cytoskeletal and nuclear mechanics are the major contributors to cell mechanics. Among other factors, steric hindrances of the extracellular matrix confinement are supposed to affect nuclear mechanics and thus also influence cell mechanics. Therefore, we propose that the percentage of invasive cells and their invasion depths into loose and dense 3D extracellular matrices is regulated by both nuclear and cytoskeletal mechanics. In order to investigate the effect of both nuclear and cytoskeletal mechanics on the overall cell mechanics, we firstly altered nuclear mechanics by the chromatin de-condensing reagent Trichostatin A (TSA) and secondly altered cytoskeletal mechanics by addition of actin polymerization inhibitor Latrunculin A and the myosin inhibitor Blebbistatin. In fact, we found that TSA-treated MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells increased their invasion depth in dense 3D extracellular matrices, whereas the invasion depths in loose matrices were decreased. Similarly, the invasion depths of TSA-treated MCF- 7 human breast cancer cells in dense matrices were significantly increased compared to loose matrices, where the invasion depths were decreased. These results are also valid in the presence of a matrix-metalloproteinase inhibitor GM6001. Using atomic force microscopy (AFM), we found that the nuclear stiffnesses of both MDA-MB- 231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cells were pronouncedly higher than their cytoskeletal stiffness, whereas the stiffness of the nucleus of human mammary epithelial cells was decreased compared to their cytoskeleton. TSA treatment reduced cytoskeletal and nuclear stiffness of MCF-7 cells, as expected. However, a softening of the nucleus by TSA treatment may induce a stiffening of the cytoskeleton of MDA-MB-231 cells and subsequently an apparent stiffening of the nucleus. Inhibiting actin polymerization using Latrunculin A revealed a softer nucleus of MDA-MB-231 cells under TSA treatment. This indicates that the actin-dependent cytoskeletal stiffness seems to be influenced by the TSA-induced nuclear stiffness changes. Finally, the combined treatment with TSA and Latrunculin A further justifies the hypothesis of apparent nuclear stiffening, indicating that cytoskeletal mechanics seem to be regulated by nuclear mechanics.

Cell migration and invasion is a key driving factor for providing essential cellular functions under physiological conditions or the malignant progression of tumors following downward the metastatic cascade. Although there has been plentiful of molecules identified to support the migration and invasion of cells, the mechanical aspects have not yet been explored in a combined and systematic manner. In addition, the cellular environment has been classically and frequently assumed to be homogeneous for reasons of simplicity. However, motility assays have led to various models for migration covering only some aspects and supporting factors that in some cases also include mechanical factors. Instead of specific models, in this review, a more or less holistic model for cell motility in 3D is envisioned covering all these different aspects with a special emphasis on the mechanical cues from a biophysical perspective. After introducing the mechanical aspects of cell migration and invasion and presenting the heterogeneity of extracellular matrices, the three distinct directions of cell motility focusing on the mechanical aspects are presented. These three different directions are as follows: firstly, the commonly used invasion tests using structural and structure-based mechanical environmental signals; secondly, the mechano-invasion assay, in which cells are studied by mechanical forces to migrate and invade; and thirdly, cell mechanics, including cytoskeletal and nuclear mechanics, to influence cell migration and invasion. Since the interaction between the cell and the microenvironment is bi-directional in these assays, these should be accounted in migration and invasion approaches focusing on the mechanical aspects. Beyond this, there is also the interaction between the cytoskeleton of the cell and its other compartments, such as the cell nucleus. In specific, a three-element approach is presented for addressing the effect of mechanics on cell migration and invasion by including the effect of the mechano-phenotype of the cytoskeleton, nucleus and the cell’s microenvironment into the analysis. In precise terms, the combination of these three research approaches including experimental techniques seems to be promising for revealing bi-directional impacts of mechanical alterations of the cellular microenvironment on cells and internal mechanical fluctuations or changes of cells on the surroundings. Finally, different approaches are discussed and thereby a model for the broad impact of mechanics on cell migration and invasion is evolved.