Journal
NANO LETTERS
Volume 20, Issue 5, Pages 3185-3191Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b05232
Keywords
giant vesicles; membrane nanotubes; STED microscopy; micropipette aspiration; membrane tension; optical tweezers
Categories
Funding
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany
- Max Planck Society
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Membrane tension modulates the morphology of plasma-membrane tubular protrusions in cells but is difficult to measure. Here, we propose to use microscopy imaging to assess the membrane tension. We report direct measurement of membrane nanotube diameters with unprecedented resolution using stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy. For this purpose, we integrated an optical tweezers setup in a commercial microscope equipped for STED imaging and established micropipette aspiration of giant vesicles. Membrane nanotubes were pulled from the vesicles at specific membrane tension imposed by the aspiration pipet. Tube diameters calculated from the applied tension using the membrane curvature elasticity model are in excellent agreement with data measured directly with STED. Our approach can be extended to cellular membranes and will then allow us to estimate the mechanical membrane tension within the force-induced nanotubes.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available