title: Optical micromanipulation of nanoparticles and cells inside living zebrafish.
abstract: Regulation of biological processes is often based on physical interactions between cells and their microenvironment. To unravel how and where interactions occur, micromanipulation methods can be used that offer high-precision control over the duration, position and magnitude of interactions. However, lacking an in vivo system, micromanipulation has generally been done with cells in vitro, which may not reflect the complex in vivo situation inside multicellular organisms. Here using optical tweezers we demonstrate micromanipulation throughout the transparent zebrafish embryo. We show that different cells, as well as injected nanoparticles and bacteria can be trapped and that adhesion properties and membrane deformation of endothelium and macrophages can be analysed. This non-invasive micromanipulation inside a whole-organism gives direct insights into cell interactions that are not accessible using existing approaches. Potential applications include screening of nanoparticle-cell interactions for cancer therapy or tissue invasion studies in cancer and infection biology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Blindernveien 31, 0371 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Patrick Lie
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Johansen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Blindernveien 31, 0371 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fenaroli
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Blindernveien 31, 0371 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Lasse
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Evensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Blindernveien 31, 0371 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Gareth
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Griffiths
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Blindernveien 31, 0371 Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Gerbrand
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Koster
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D008264:Macrophages / Q000378:metabolism; D008845:Microinjections; D008846:Micromanipulation / Q000379:methods*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry; D052898:Optical Tweezers; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000378:metabolism*