Viscoelastic parameterization of human skin cells characterize material behavior at multiple timescales

Countless biophysical studies have sought distinct markers in the cellular mechanical response that could be linked to morphogenesis, homeostasis, and disease. Here, an iterative-fitting methodology visualizes the time-dependent viscoelastic behavior of human skin cells under physiologically relevant conditions. Past investigations often involved parameterizing elastic relationships and assuming purely Hertzian contact mechanics, which fails to properly account for the rich temporal information available. We demonstrate the performance superiority of the proposed iterative viscoelastic characterization method over standard open-search approaches. Our viscoelastic measurements revealed that 2D adherent metastatic melanoma cells exhibit reduced elasticity compared to their normal counterparts—melanocytes and fibroblasts, and are significantly less viscous than fibroblasts over timescales spanning three orders of magnitude. The measured loss angle indicates clear differential viscoelastic responses across multiple timescales between the measured cells. This method provides insight into the complex viscoelastic behavior of metastatic melanoma cells relevant to better understanding cancer metastasis and aggression.