OPTICAL TWEEZERS FOR THE OBSERVATION OF MEMBRANE NANOTUBES

Optical tweezers have been used successfully to provide precise manipulation of micron sized particles with nanometre scale resolution [1]. Nanotubes are submicron sized structures that interconnect cells over large distances (tens of microns) and have been observed to play an important role in the dynamics of intercellular communication [2]. In this work, we have implemented an optical tweezer set-up coupled to a fluorescence microscope to manipulate white blood cells of the immune system membrane-tagged with 3,3’-dioctadecyloxacarbocyanine perchlorate (DiO). The optical tweezer set-up allows for the manipulation of the cells in order to form membrane nanotubes or tethers on demand (Figure 1). Furthermore, these optical tools can be used to study nanotube properties such as their characteristic force. Our experiments verify that optical tweezers can be a powerful tool in the study of the function and form of nanotubes between cells of the lymphatic system