The
mechanical properties of submicron particles offer a unique
design space for advanced drug-delivery particle engineering. However,
the recognition of this potential is limited by a poor consensus about
both the specificity and sensitivity of mechanosensitive endocytosis
over a broad particle stiffness range. In this report, our model series
of polystyrene-co-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)
(pS-co-NIPAM) microgels have been prepared with a
nominally constant monomer composition (50 mol % styrene and 50 mol
% NIPAM) with varied bis-acrylamide cross-linking densities to introduce
a tuned spectrum of particle mechanics without significant variation
in particle size and surface charge. While previous mechanosensitive
studies use particles with moduli ranging from 15 kPa to 20 MPa, the
pS-co-NIPAM particles have Young’s moduli
(E) ranging from 300 to 700 MPa, which is drastically
stiffer than these previous studies as well as pure pNIPAM. Despite
this elevated stiffness, particle uptake in RAW264.7 murine macrophages
displays a clear stiffness dependence, with a significant increase
in particle uptake for our softest microgels after a 4 h incubation.
Preferential uptake of the softest microgel, pS-co-NIPAM-1 (E = 310 kPa), was similarly observed with
nonphagocytic HepG2 hepatoma cells; however, the uptake kinetics were
distinct relative to that observed for RAW264.7 cells. Pharmacological
inhibitors, used to probe for specific routes of particle internalization,
identify actin- and microtubule-dependent pathways in RAW264.7 cells
as sensitive particle mechanics. For our pS-co-NIPAM
particles at nominally 300–400 nm in size, this microtubule-dependent
pathway was interpreted as a phagocytic route. For our high-stiffness
microgel series, this study provides evidence of cell-specific, mechanosensitive
endocytosis in a distinctly new stiffness regime that will further
broaden the functional landscape of mechanics as a design space for
particle engineering.