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Silicon chips detect intracellular pressure changes in living cells

Nature Nanotechnology volume 8, pages 517–521 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

The ability to measure pressure changes inside different components of a living cell is important, because it offers an alternative way to study fundamental processes that involve cell deformation1. Most current techniques such as pipette aspiration2, optical interferometry3 or external pressure probes4 use either indirect measurement methods or approaches that can damage the cell membrane. Here we show that a silicon chip small enough to be internalized into a living cell can be used to detect pressure changes inside the cell. The chip, which consists of two membranes separated by a vacuum gap to form a Fabry–Pérot resonator, detects pressure changes that can be quantified from the intensity of the reflected light. Using this chip, we show that extracellular hydrostatic pressure is transmitted into HeLa cells and that these cells can endure hypo-osmotic stress without significantly increasing their intracellular hydrostatic pressure.

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Figure 1: Design and sensing principle of the chip.
Figure 2: Validation of the sensing principle.
Figure 3: Silicon chips inside human cells.
Figure 4: Detection of pressure changes inside cells.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Spanish Government grants TEC2009-07687-E, TEC2011-29140-C03-01 and SAF2010-21879-C02-01. P.V. was supported by Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Diabetes y Enfermedades Metabólicas Asociadas–Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CIBERDEM-ISCIII). The authors thank M. Calvo of Centros Científicos y Tecnológicos–Universidad de Barcelona (CCiT-UB), M.T. Seisdedos (CIB), J. Monteagudo (Leica Microsystems S.L.) and D. Megias of Unidad de Microscopía Confocal-Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CMU-CNIO) for their assistance with CLSM experiments and A. Bosch (CCiT-UB) for assistance with image processing. The authors also thank the cleanroom staff of IMB-CNM for fabrication of the chips.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona, IMB-CNM (CSIC), Esfera UAB, Campus UAB, Cerdanyola, 08193, Barcelona, Spain

    Rodrigo Gómez-Martínez, Marta Duch, Kirill Zinoviev, Jaume Esteve & José A. Plaza

  2. Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, CIB (CSIC), C/Ramiro de Maeztu 9, Madrid, 28040, Spain

    Alberto M. Hernández-Pinto, Patricia Vázquez, Enrique J. de la Rosa & Teresa Suárez

Authors
  1. Rodrigo Gómez-Martínez
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  6. Enrique J. de la Rosa
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  9. José A. Plaza
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Contributions

All authors discussed the results and contributed to writing the manuscript. M.D., R.G-M. and J.E. conceived and guided chip fabrication. Optical design and analysis was carried out by K.Z. The biological experiments were performed by A.M.H.P. and P.V., designed by A.M.H.P. and E.J.d.l.R., and planned and coordinated by T.S. R.G-M. performed the experimental characterization of the chips as well as data analysis. J.A.P. conceived and directed the project.

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Correspondence to José A. Plaza.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Gómez-Martínez, R., Hernández-Pinto, A., Duch, M. et al. Silicon chips detect intracellular pressure changes in living cells. Nature Nanotech 8, 517–521 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2013.118

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