Analysis of single cell activity stimulated by femtosecond laser-induced impulsive force

当强红外飞秒激光在显微镜下聚焦到细胞培养液中时，通过有效的多光子吸收，在激光焦点处诱导爆炸。由于爆炸发生在几十微米量级的区域，机械冲击力可以加载到单个培养的动物细胞上。在本研究中，将飞秒激光诱导的冲击力加载到单个肌肉成肌细胞和神经元上，然后通过钙离子动员来研究其活性的调节。这种刺激方法的优点是力的大小可以随着激光强度和脉冲重复频率的变化而灵活控制。用这种新的方法研究了机械刺激对细胞活性的调节机制。

When an intense infrared femtosecond laser is focused into cell culture medium under microscope, an explosion is induced at the laser focal point through an efficient multi-photon absorption. Since the explosion localizes in the area with order of a few tens micron, a mechanical impulsive force can load on a single cultured animal cell. In this investigation, the femtosecond laser-induced impulsive force was loaded on a single muscle myoblast cells and neurons, and then modulation of the activity was investigated by calcium ion(Ca^<2+>) mobilization. An advantage of this stimulation method is that the force magnitude can flexibly control with the laser intensity and pulse repetition rate. The mechanism of the cell activity modulation by the mechanical stimulation was investigated by this new method.