Abstract
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is useful for measuring the mechanical properties of living cells. Recently, the indentation–based AFM allowed us to obtain images of cell height and stiffness in developing embryos during cell division where the actin filaments and myosin are dynamically accumulated and released in the cortical region. This review addresses the advantage of AFM to probe the mechanical properties of embryonic cells in terms of other techniques for embryo mechanics and shows how the mechanical properties of embryonic cells, measured by AFM, change during cell division.
