Fabrication of functional gel-nanotool for intracellular measurement

Abstract

Functional gel-nanotool impregnated with indicators for intracellular measurement in a microfluidic chip was developed. We employed membrane fusion of liposome for invasive injection of the gel-nanotool into a specific cell. The gel-nanotool is made by photo polymerization of the aggregated hydrophilic photo-crosslinkable resin. And it is modified by fluorescent dye for environment measurement. For injection to a cell, the gel-nanotool was included in fusogenic liposome. The gel-nanotool coated by fusogenic liposome was prepared by Bangham method. The gel-nanotool was manipulated by optical tweezers and contacted to the target cell. After contact of the gel-nanotool, the gel-nanotool was injected to the cell autonomously by membrane fusion of the fusogenic liposome. Injected gel-nanotool was manipulated by optical tweezers inside the cell. Detection of intracellular temperature was performed by observing the fluorescence from the gel-nanotool. We demonstrated preparation of the gel-nanotool, injection of the gel-nanotool to the cell by membrane fusion, and measurement of intracellular temperature in the chip.