Red blood cell in the field of a beam of optical tweezers

We consider the effect of a tightly focused laser beam with a wavelength of 1064 nm and a power from 10 to 160 mW on red blood cells during their optical trapping with optical tweezers. It is found that the shape of a red blood cell, which alters after opti-cal trapping, ceases to change when the trapping duration is less than 5 min and the laser beam power is less than 60 mW. At a beam power above 80 mW, the red blood cell begins to fold at a trapping duration of about 1 min, and at powers above 100 - 150 mW, the red blood cell membrane ruptures in 1 - 3 min after optical trapping. It is also found that with repeated short-term capture of a red blood cell in an optical trap, the deformation properties of the membrane change: it becomes more rigid. The obtained results are important both for understanding the mechanisms of interaction of a laser beam with red blood cells and for optimising the technique of opti-cal experiments, especially for measuring the deformation proper-ties of a membrane using optical tweezers.

Automated summary

The study shows that the shape of a red blood cell changes after optical trapping, but ceases to change when the trapping duration is less than 5 minutes and the laser beam power is below 60 mW. An increase in laser power can lead to cell folding after 1 minute and membrane rupture after 1-3 minutes.