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Living cells as a biological analog of optical tweezers – a non-invasive microrheology approach

Hardiman, William; Clark, Matt; Friel, Claire; Huett, Alan; Pérez-Cota, Fernando; Setchfield, Kerry; Wright, Amanda J.; Tassieri, Manlio

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Authors

MATT CLARK matt.clark@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Optics

ALAN HUETT Alan.Huett@nottingham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor

Kerry Setchfield

Manlio Tassieri



Abstract

Microrheology, the study of fluids on micron length-scales, promises to reveal insights into cellular biology, including mechanical biomarkers of disease and the interplay between biomechanics and cellular function. Here a minimally-invasive passive microrheology technique is applied to individual living cells by chemically binding a bead to the surface of a cell, and observing the mean squared displacement of the bead at timescales ranging from milliseconds to 100s of seconds. Measurements are repeated over the course of hours, and presented alongside analysis to quantify changes in the cells’ low-frequency elastic modulus, G'0, and the cell’s dynamics over the time window ~10-2s to 10 s. An analogy to optical trapping allows verification of the invariant viscosity of HeLa S3 cells under control conditions and after cytoskeletal disruption. Stiffening of the cell is observed during cytoskeletal rearrangement in the control case, and cell softening when the actin cytoskeleton is disrupted by Latrunculin B. These data correlate with conventional understanding that integrin binding and recruitment triggers cytoskeletal rearrangement. This is, to our knowledge, the first time that cell stiffening has been measured during focal adhesion maturation, and the longest time over which such stiffening has been quantified by any means.

Citation

Hardiman, W., Clark, M., Friel, C., Huett, A., Pérez-Cota, F., Setchfield, K., …Tassieri, M. (2023). Living cells as a biological analog of optical tweezers – a non-invasive microrheology approach. Acta Biomaterialia, 166, 317-325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2023.04.039

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 25, 2023
Online Publication Date May 1, 2023
Publication Date 2023-08
Deposit Date May 12, 2023
Publicly Available Date May 17, 2023
Journal Acta Biomaterialia
Print ISSN 1742-7061
Electronic ISSN 1878-7568
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 166
Pages 317-325
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2023.04.039
Keywords Molecular Biology; Biomedical Engineering; Biochemistry; Biomaterials; General Medicine; Biotechnology
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/20287297
Publisher URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1742706123002398?via%3Dihub

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