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Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 218101 (2006) [4 pages]

Optical Measurement of Cell Membrane Tension

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Gabriel Popescu1, Takahiro Ikeda2, Keisuke Goda3, Catherine A. Best-Popescu4, Michael Laposata4, Suliana Manley5, Ramachandra R. Dasari1, Kamran Badizadegan1,4, and Michael S. Feld1
1George R. Harrison Spectroscopy Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
2Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., 5000 Hirakuchi, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 434-8601 Japan
3Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
4Department of Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA
5Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

Received 16 April 2006; published 20 November 2006

Using a novel noncontact technique based on optical interferometry, we quantify the nanoscale thermal fluctuations of red blood cells (RBCs) and giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs). The measurements reveal a nonvanishing tension coefficient for RBCs, which increases as cells transition from a discocytic shape to a spherical shape. The tension coefficient measured for GUVs is, however, a factor of 4–24 smaller. By contrast, the bending moduli for cells and vesicles have similar values. This is consistent with the cytoskeleton confinement model, in which the cytoskeleton inhibits membrane fluctuations [Gov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90 228101 (2003)].

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.218101
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.218101
PACS:
87.68.+z, 87.15.Ya
 
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