State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, College of Biology, Hunan University , Changsha, 410082, People's Republic of China.
Key Laboratory of Luminescent and Real-Time Analytical Chemistry, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Southwest University , Chongqing, 400715, People's Republic of China.
ACS Nano. 2017 Jan 24;11(1):541-548. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.6b06591. Epub 2017 Jan 10.
Mechanical force signaling in cells has been regarded as the biological foundation of various important physiological functions. To understand the nature of these biological and physiological processes, imaging and determining the mechanical signal transduction dynamics in live cells are required. Herein, we proposed a strategy to determine mechanical force as well as its changes with single-particle dark-field spectral microscopy by using a single plasmonic nanospring as a mechanical sensor, which can transfer force-induced molecular extension/compression into spectral responses. With this robust plasmonic nanospring, we achieved the visualization of activation of localized mechanical force transduction in single live cells triggered by reactive-oxygen-species (ROS) stimulation. The successful demonstration of a biochemical ROS signal to mechanical signal conversion suggested this strategy is promising for studying mechanical force signaling and regulation in live biological systems.
机械力信号在细胞中被视为各种重要生理功能的生物学基础。为了理解这些生物学和生理学过程的本质，需要对活细胞中的机械信号转导动力学进行成像和测定。在此，我们提出了一种策略，即通过使用单个等离子体纳米弹簧作为机械传感器，利用单粒子暗场光谱显微镜来确定机械力及其变化，该传感器可以将力引起的分子伸展/压缩转化为光谱响应。利用这种稳健的等离子体纳米弹簧，我们实现了对由活性氧（ROS）刺激引发的单个活细胞中局部机械力转导激活的可视化。ROS 信号到机械信号转换的成功演示表明，该策略有望用于研究活生物系统中的机械力信号转导和调节。
