Coker Zachary N, Troyanova-Wood Maria, Steelman Zachary A, Ibey Bennett L, Bixler Joel N, Scully Marlan O, Yakovlev Vladislav V
Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas A&M University, 4242 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843 USA.
SAIC, Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234 USA.
Photonix. 2024;5(1):9. doi: 10.1186/s43074-024-00123-w. Epub 2024 Apr 10.
Measurements and imaging of the mechanical response of biological cells are critical for understanding the mechanisms of many diseases, and for fundamental studies of energy, signal and force transduction. The recent emergence of Brillouin microscopy as a powerful non-contact, label-free way to non-invasively and non-destructively assess local viscoelastic properties provides an opportunity to expand the scope of biomechanical research to the sub-cellular level. Brillouin spectroscopy has recently been validated through static measurements of cell viscoelastic properties, however, fast (sub-second) measurements of sub-cellular cytomechanical changes have yet to be reported. In this report, we utilize a custom multimodal spectroscopy system to monitor for the very first time the rapid viscoelastic response of cells and subcellular structures to a short-duration electrical impulse. The cytomechanical response of three subcellular structures - cytoplasm, nucleoplasm, and nucleoli - were monitored, showing distinct mechanical changes despite an identical stimulus. Through this pioneering transformative study, we demonstrate the capability of Brillouin spectroscopy to measure rapid, real-time biomechanical changes within distinct subcellular compartments. Our results support the promising future of Brillouin spectroscopy within the broad scope of cellular biomechanics.
对生物细胞力学响应的测量和成像，对于理解许多疾病的发病机制以及能量、信号和力转导的基础研究至关重要。布里渊显微镜作为一种强大的非接触、无标记方法，能够以非侵入性和非破坏性方式评估局部粘弹性特性，它的出现为将生物力学研究范围扩展到亚细胞水平提供了契机。布里渊光谱法最近已通过对细胞粘弹性特性的静态测量得到验证，然而，亚细胞层面细胞力学变化的快速（亚秒级）测量尚未见报道。在本报告中，我们首次利用定制的多模态光谱系统监测细胞和亚细胞结构对短持续时间电脉冲的快速粘弹性响应。我们监测了三种亚细胞结构——细胞质、核质和核仁——的细胞力学响应，结果显示，尽管刺激相同，但它们的力学变化却截然不同。通过这项开创性的变革性研究，我们证明了布里渊光谱法能够测量不同亚细胞区室内快速、实时的生物力学变化。我们的结果支持了布里渊光谱法在细胞生物力学广泛领域中充满希望的未来。
