Abstract
The mechanical deformation of biological cells using optical forces is an efficient experimental method to study cellular mechanical properties that may identify cell types and detect disease states. However, the low throughput has significantly limited its utility and application due to the need to sequentially isolate and probe individual cells. We have implemented a pseudo steady-state high-throughput optical stretcher in which anisotropic forces from an inexpensive laser diode stretch osmotically swollen bovine erythrocytes in a continuous microfluidic flow at a rate of ∼ 1 cell/second. This measurement rate is a factor of 10-100 higher than previous demonstrations of optical stretching. We also simulate the deformation of elastic capsules induced by single diode-bar optical stretcher with and without flow. Finally, we demonstrate how theory can be applied to determine the elastic modulus of individual cells from experimental measurements of the equilibrium deformation. Analysis of the deformed cells results in a shear modulus in the range of reported values from 2.5x10−3 dyne/cm to 1.3x10−2 dyne/cm for swollen human erythrocytes. This new optical approach has the potential to be readily integrated with other cytometric technologies, and with the capability of measuring cell populations, thus enabling true mechanical-property based cytometry.
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