Provena Covenant Medical Centre 1 article published in JoVE Bioengineering Isolation of Primary Human Colon Tumor Cells from Surgical Tissues and Culturing Them Directly on Soft Elastic Substrates for Traction Cytometry M. Yakut Ali1, Sandeep V. Anand1, Krishnarao Tangella2,3, Davendra Ramkumar2,3, Taher A. Saif1,4 1Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 3Provena Covenant Medical Centre, 4Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign A protocol is described to extract primary human cells from surgical colon tumor and normal tissues. The isolated cells are then cultured on soft elastic substrates (polyacrylamide hydrogels) functionalized by an extracellular matrix protein, and embedded with fluorescent microbeads. Traction cytometry is performed to assess cellular contractile stresses.
