Optical trapping of synaptic vesicles in neurons

We demonstrate intracellular manipulation of synaptic vesicles in living neurons by optical trapping. When an infrared trapping laser is focused on synapses of a neuronal cell labeled with a fluorescent endocytic marker, fluorescence is observed at the focal spot. The fluorescence spectrum is attrib...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2011-04, Vol.98 (16), p.163705-163705-3
Main Authors: Hosokawa, Chie, Kudoh, Suguru N., Kiyohara, Ai, Taguchi, Takahisa
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We demonstrate intracellular manipulation of synaptic vesicles in living neurons by optical trapping. When an infrared trapping laser is focused on synapses of a neuronal cell labeled with a fluorescent endocytic marker, fluorescence is observed at the focal spot. The fluorescence spectrum is attributed to fluorescent dye in the synaptic vesicles, indicating excitation by two-photon absorption of the trapping laser. The fluorescence intensity increases gradually within ∼ 100   s of laser irradiation, suggesting that trapping force causes vesicles assembly at the focus. Our method can be applied to manipulate synaptic transmission of a particular neuron in a neuronal network.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.3579191