Dynamics of semiflexible polymer solutions in the tightly entangled concentration regime

I corroborate an important experimental evidence reported by Schuldt et al. [ Phys. Rev. Lett. 2016, 117, 197801] revealing the incapability of the current theoretical framework to fully describe the dynamics of semiflexible polymer solutions in the tightly entangled concentration regime. These results have been endorsed here by means of previously published, but overlooked, data by Tassieri et al. [ Phys. Rev. Lett. 2008, 101, 198301; Biophys. J. 2008, 94, 2170]. The ensemble of information provides a strong evidence that the scaling law of the plateau modulus as a function of polymer’s concentration and persistence length, i.e., G0 ∝ cαLpβ, should have both the exponents positive, in contrast with all the existing predictions converging on similar values of α > 0 and β < 0—hence the need of new theoretical models able to better interpret the contribution of the polymer bending rigidity to the viscoelastic properties of the polymer network

Linear microrheology with optical tweezers of living cells 'is not an option'!

Optical tweezers have been successfully adopted as exceptionally sensitive transducers for microrheology studies of complex fluids. Despite the general trend, in this article I explain why a similar approach should not be adopted for microrheology studies of living cells. This conclusion is reached on the basis of statistical mechanics principles that indicate the unsuitability of optical tweezers for such purpose

Microrheology with Optical Tweezers of gel-like materials 'is not an option'!

Optical tweezers have been successfully adopted as exceptionally sensitive transducers for microrheology studies of complex 'fluids'. Despite the general trend, a similar approach cannot be adopted for microrheology studies of 'gel-like' materials, e.g. living cells.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figur

Comment on "A symmetrical method to obtain shear moduli from microrheology" by Kengo Nishi, Maria L. Kilfoil, Christoph F. Schmidt, and F. C. MacKintosh, Soft Matter, 2018, 14, 3716

Nishi et al. have presented a new analytical method for transforming the time-dependent materials' compliance into their frequency-dependent complex shear modulus, without the need of a preconceived fitting function nor the use of Kramers–Kronig transformations. They claim that their method significantly improves the accuracy of the outcomes, especially at high frequencies, up to “almost” the Nyquist frequency. Here, I corroborate that their method is actually able to provide a close estimation of the materials' complex shear modulus over the ‘entire’ range of explored frequencies (i.e. beyond the Nyquist frequency), as long as the compliance values are linearly spaced in the time-domain and its value at time zero is included as the first data point in the input file. Moreover, as a means of comparison, I employ the analytical method introduced by Tassieri et al. [New J. Phys., 2012, 14, 115032] for performing the Fourier transform of any generic time-dependent function that vanishes for negative times, is sampled at a finite rate, need not be equally spaced and extends over a finite time window. This existing method does not need preconceived fitting functions nor the use of Kramers–Kronig transformations; yet it shows a higher degree of accuracy compared to the one proposed by Nishi et al

Frequency dependence of microflows upon acoustic interactions with fluids

Rayleigh surface acoustic waves (SAWs), generated on piezoelectric substrates, can interact with liquids to generate fast streaming flows. Although studied extensively, mainly phenomenologically, the effect of the SAW frequency on streaming in fluids in constrained volumes is not fully understood, resulting in sub-optimal correlations between models and experimental observations. Using microfluidic structures to reproducibly define the fluid volume, we use recent advances modeling the body force generated by SAWs to develop a deeper understanding of the effect of acoustic frequency on the magnitude of streaming flows. We implement this as a new predictive tool using a finite element model of fluid motion to establish optimized conditions for streaming. The model is corroborated experimentally over a range of different acoustic excitation frequencies enabling us to validate a design tool, linking microfluidic channel dimensions with frequencies and streaming efficiencies. We show that in typical microfluidic chambers, the length and height of the chamber are critical in determining the optimum frequency, with smaller geometries requiring higher frequencies

Confinement of surface waves at the air-water interface to control aerosol size and dispersity

The precise control over the size and dispersity of droplets, produced within aerosols, is of great interest across many manufacturing, food, cosmetic, and medical industries. Amongst these applications, the delivery of new classes of high value drugs to the lungs has recently attracted significant attention from pharmaceutical companies. This is commonly achieved through the mechanical excitation of surface waves at the air liquid interface of a parent liquid volume. Previous studies have established a correlation between the wavelength on the surface of liquid and the final aerosol size. In this work, we show that the droplet size distribution of aerosols can be controlled by constraining the liquid inside micron-sized cavities and coupling surface acoustic waves into different volumes of liquid inside micro-grids. In particular, we show that by reducing the characteristic physical confinement size (i.e., either the initial liquid volume or the cavities’ diameters), higher harmonics of capillary waves are revealed with a consequent reduction of both aerosol mean size and dispersity. In doing so, we provide a new method for the generation and fine control of aerosols’ sizes distribution

Rheology at the micro-scale: new tools for bio-analysis

We present a simple and non-invasive experimental procedure to measure the linear viscoelastic properties of cells by passive particle tracking microrheology. In order to do this, a generalised Langevin equation is adopted to relate the timedependent thermal fluctuations of a probe sensor, immobilised to the cell’s membrane, to the frequency-dependent viscoelastic moduli of the cell. The method has been validated by measuring the linear viscoelastic response of a soft solid and then applied to cell physiology studies. It is shown that the viscoelastic moduli are related to the cell’s cytoskeletal structure, which in this work is modulated either by inhibiting the actin/myosin-II interactions by means of blebbistatin or by varying the solution osmolarity from iso- to hypo-osmotic conditions. The insights gained from this form of rheological analysis promises to be a valuable addition to physiological studies; e.g. cell physiology during pathology and pharmacological response

Dynamic stereo microscopy for studying particle sedimentation

We demonstrate a new method for measuring the sedimentation of a single colloidal bead by using a combination of optical tweezers and a stereo microscope based on a spatial light modulator. We use optical tweezers to raise a micron-sized silica bead to a fixed height and then release it to observe its 3D motion while it sediments under gravity. This experimental procedure provides two independent measurements of bead diameter and a measure of Faxén’s correction, where the motion changes due to presence of the boundary

Optical shield: measuring viscosity of turbid fluids using optical tweezers

The viscosity of a fluid can be measured by tracking the motion of a suspended micron-sized particle trapped by optical tweezers. However, when the particle density is high, additional particles entering the trap compromise the tracking procedure and degrade the accuracy of the measurement. In this work we introduce an additional Laguerre–Gaussian, i.e. annular, beam surrounding the trap, acting as an optical shield to exclude contaminating particles

A one-step procedure to probe the viscoelastic properties of cells by Atomic Force Microscopy

The increasingly recognised importance of viscoelastic properties of cells in pathological conditions requires rapid development of advanced cell microrheology technologies. Here, we present a novel Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)-microrheology (AFM2) method for measuring the viscoelastic properties in living cells, over a wide range of continuous frequencies (0.005 Hz ~ 200 Hz), from a simple stress-relaxation nanoindentation. Experimental data were directly analysed without the need for pre-conceived viscoelastic models. We show the method had an excellent agreement with conventional oscillatory bulk-rheology measurements in gels, opening a new avenue for viscoelastic characterisation of soft matter using minute quantity of materials (or cells). Using this capability, we investigate the viscoelastic responses of cells in association with cancer cell invasive activity modulated by two important molecular regulators (i.e. mutation of the p53 gene and Rho kinase activity). The analysis of elastic (G′(ω)) and viscous (G″(ω)) moduli of living cells has led to the discovery of a characteristic transitions of the loss tangent (G″(ω)/G′(ω)) in the low frequency range (0.005 Hz ~ 0.1 Hz) that is indicative of the capability for cell restructuring of F-actin network. Our method is ready to be implemented in conventional AFMs, providing a simple yet powerful tool for measuring the viscoelastic properties of living cells