Intracellular micro-rheology probed by micron-sized wires

Abstract In the last decade, rapid advances have been made in the field of micro-rheology of cells and tissues. Given the complexity of living systems, there is a need for the development of new types of nano- and micron-sized probes, and in particular of probes with controlled interactions with the surrounding medium. In the present paper, we evaluate the use of micron-sized wires as potential probes of the mechanical properties of cells. The wire-based micro-rheology technique is applied to living cells such as murine fibroblasts and canine kidney epithelial cells. The mean-squared angular displacement of wires associated to their rotational dynamics is obtained as a function of the time using optical microscopy and image processing. It reveals a Brownian-like diffusive regime of the form 〈 Δ ψ 2 ( t , L ) 〉 ∼ t / L 3 , where L denotes the wire length. This scaling suggests that an effective viscosity of the intracellular medium can be determined, and that in the range 1–10 μm it does not depend on the length scale over which it is measured.