Rotational optical tweezers for active microrheometry within living cells

Abstract

Studying the mechanical properties of living cells provides opportunities to unravel the physical phenomena that govern biological functions. Macropinocytosis is a cellular pathway that involves the non-selective uptake of extracellular fluid through the formation of a macropinosome and is implicated in crucial cell-specific roles. Here, we describe an in vivo intracellular study that exploits a high-resolution rotational geometry to trap and monitor a photonic probe within a macropinosome. We use the transfer of spin angular momentum in rotational optical tweezers and show that active microrheometry methods can be successfully conducted in vivo , leading to a shear viscosity measurement of a macropinosome lumen within a living cell of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1.01</mml:mn> <mml:mo>±</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.16</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> <mml:mspace width="thickmathspace"/> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">P</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">a</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mspace width="thickmathspace"/> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">s</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> . This work provides a foundation for dynamic mechanobiological studies characterizing biological processes of intracellular vesicles.