ASTM F2998-14
Guide for Using Fluorescence Microscopy to Quantify the Spread Area of Fixed Cells

Standard No.

ASTM F2998-14

Release Date

2014

Published By

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)

Latest

ASTM F2998-14

Scope

5.1 Under well-controlled conditions, the quantitative evaluation of morphological features of a cell population can be used to identify changes in cellular behavior or state. Cell morphology changes may be expected when, for example, there is a response to changes in cellular cytoskeleton organization (1), a response of cells to toxic compounds, changes in differentiation state, and changes in adhesion properties of cells to a substrate by either chemical or mechanical-induced extracellular matrix-based (ECM-based) signaling pathways (2, 3). Typically, populations of cells exhibit a range of morphologies even when the cells are genetically identical and are in a homogeneous environment (4). This biological variation in cell response is due to both cell-cycle variations and stochasticity in the cellular reactions that control adhesion and spreading in cells. By using cell-by-cell, microscopy-based measurements and appropriate statistical sampling procedures, the distribution of cell morphologies such as cell spreading area per cell can be measured. This distribution is highly characteristic of the culture and conditions being examined.

5.2 It is important to note that the use of this technique for cells on or in a 3-D scaffold materials can complicate the interpretation of the data. The topographic transforms of the cells on a 3-D material may require full volumetric imaging and not just wide-field fluorescence imaging as described here.

5.3 the following are several examples of how this measurement can be used in a laboratory:—

5.3.1 Quantify Cellular Response to a Biomaterial—The measurement of cell spread area can be used to characterize the response of cells to biomaterials. For example, spreading of most cell types is extremely sensitive to the stiffness of the culture substrate (5), (6). It is important to note that cell response to an ECM may be dependent on the preparation of the matrix. For example, the same ECM proteins prepared in a fibrillar or non-fibrillar surface coating can result in different morphology response

5.3.2 Quality Control Metric for General Cell Culture Conditions—Cell spread area may be a useful metric for monitoring a change in cell culture conditions (that is, due to a serum component, pH, passage number, confluence, etc.). Cell morphology is often altered when cells are stressed and proceeding through cell-death related processes (that is, apotoposis).

5.3.3 Quality Control Metric for Biomaterial Fabrication—Cell spread area measurements may be useful for generating specifications for a biomaterial. These specifications may stipulate how a particular cell line responds to a fabricated biomaterial.

5.3.4 Quality Control Metric for Cell Line Integrity and Morphology Benchmarking—The morphology characteristic of a cell line grown under specified conditions should ideally be the same over time and in different laboratories. Thus, cell spread area measurements may be useful for validating that no significant changes in the cell cultures have occurred. This measurement provides a benchmark that is useful for establishing the current state of the cell culture and a metric that can be charted to increased confidence for within and between laboratory comparisons of cellular measurements (7......

ASTM F2998-14 Referenced Document

• ASTM E1488 Standard Guide for Statistical Procedures to Use in Developing and Applying ASTM Test Methods
• ASTM F2150 Standard Guide for Characterization and Testing of Biomaterial Scaffolds Used in Regenerative Medicine and Tissue-Engineered Medical Products

ASTM F2998-14 history

• 2014 ASTM F2998-14 Guide for Using Fluorescence Microscopy to Quantify the Spread Area of Fixed Cells