Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 7: Poster Session I

BP 7.38: Poster

Montag, 9. März 2026, 15:00–17:00, P5

A fast & quantitative method to study membrane elasticity of suspended cells — •Eric Sündermann, Bob Fregin, Doreen Biedenweg, Jan Wilder, Stefanie Spiegler, and Oliver Otto — Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Current research acknowledges the importance of bulk and membrane mechanics for understanding cell state and function under pathophysiological conditions. While microfluidic technologies allow for measuring bulk mechanical properties at rates exceeding 1,000 cells per second, traditional approaches for assessing membrane elasticity lack the throughput required to screen entire cell populations.
Here, we utilise membrane tension cytometry (MTC), a microfluidic method combining shear-induced deformation of cells with the capabilities of Flipper-TR, a fluorophore with fluorescence lifetime proportional to the cell membrane elasticity. We established a calibration procedure using thousands of osmotically stressed red blood cells, and confirmed a quantitative relation between surface area and membrane elasticity introduced earlier for different cell models. Next, we focused on HL60 cells, a myeloid precursor cell line. We disturbed cholesterol and filamentous actin, and demonstrated that MTC is sensitive to changes in lipid composition, while being insensitive to cytoskeletal alterations. Finally, we directly measured the mitochondrial membrane elasticity inside living cells using Mito Flipper-TR. Interestingly, mitochondria seem to respond to an external hydrodynamic stress by an increase in membrane elasticity, which might be relevant to understand fission and fusion processes from a mechanical perspective.

Keywords: Membrane mechanics; Membrane elasticity; Deformability cytometry; Fluorescence lifetime