Optical Manipulation of Erythrocytes via Evanescent Waves: Assessing Glucose-Induced Mobility Variations

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that evanescent wave optical manipulation can detect glucose-induced changes in erythrocyte mobility, offering a non-invasive method to study cell membrane mechanics influenced by biochemical variations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of evanescent waves combined with automated tracking to quantify erythrocyte mobility changes due to glucose levels.

Findings

Evanescent waves can manipulate erythrocytes non-invasively.

Erythrocyte velocity decreases with higher glucose concentrations.

Significant mobility variation observed between 5 mM and 50 mM glucose.

Abstract

This study investigates the dynamics of red blood cells (RBCs) under the influence of evanescent waves generated by total internal reflection (TIR). Using a 1064 nm laser system and a dual-chamber prism setup, we quantified the mobility of erythrocytes in different glucose environments. Our methodology integrates automated tracking via TrackMate\c{opyright} to analyze over 60 trajectory sets. The results reveal a significant decrease in mean velocity, from 11.8 {\mu}m/s in 5 mM glucose to 8.8 {\mu}m/s in 50 mM glucose (p = 0.019). These findings suggest that evanescent waves can serve as a non-invasive tool to probe the mechanical properties of cell membranes influenced by biochemical changes.