Optical tweezers force measurements to study parasites chemotaxis

A. A. de Thomaz; L. Y. Pozzo; A. Fontes; D. B. Almeida; C. V. Stahl; J. R. Santos-Mallet; S. A. O. Gomes; D. Feder; D. C. Ayres; S. Giorgio; C. L. Cesar

doi:10.1117/12.831480

1 July 2009 Optical tweezers force measurements to study parasites chemotaxis

A. A. de Thomaz, L. Y. Pozzo, A. Fontes, D. B. Almeida, C. V. Stahl, J. R. Santos-Mallet, S. A. O. Gomes, D. Feder, D. C. Ayres, S. Giorgio, C. L. Cesar

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7367, Advanced Microscopy Techniques; 73671A (2009) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.831480
Event: European Conferences on Biomedical Optics, 2009, Munich, Germany

Abstract

In this work, we propose a methodology to study microorganisms chemotaxis in real time using an Optical Tweezers system. Optical Tweezers allowed real time measurements of the force vectors, strength and direction, of living parasites under chemical or other kinds of gradients. This seems to be the ideal tool to perform observations of taxis response of cells and microorganisms with high sensitivity to capture instantaneous responses to a given stimulus. Forces involved in the movement of unicellular parasites are very small, in the femto-pico-Newton range, about the same order of magnitude of the forces generated in an Optical Tweezers. We applied this methodology to investigate the Leishmania amazonensis (L. amazonensis) and Trypanossoma cruzi (T. cruzi) under distinct situations.

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A. A. de Thomaz, L. Y. Pozzo, A. Fontes, D. B. Almeida, C. V. Stahl, J. R. Santos-Mallet, S. A. O. Gomes, D. Feder, D. C. Ayres, S. Giorgio, and C. L. Cesar "Optical tweezers force measurements to study parasites chemotaxis", Proc. SPIE 7367, Advanced Microscopy Techniques, 73671A (1 July 2009); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.831480

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