The mechanical properties of the nucleus are closely related to many cellular functions; thus, measuring nuclear mechanical properties is crucial to our understanding of cell biomechanics and could lead to intrinsic biophysical contrast mechanisms to classify cells. Although many technologies have been developed to characterize cell stiffness, they generally require contact with the cell and thus cannot provide direct information on nuclear mechanical properties. In this work, we developed a flow cytometry technique based on an all-optical measurement to measure nuclear mechanical properties by integrating Brillouin spectroscopy with microfluidics. Brillouin spectroscopy probes the mechanical properties of material via light scattering, so it is inherently label-free, non-contact, and non-invasive. Using a measuring beam spot of submicron size, we can measure several regions within each cell as they flow, which enables us to classify cell populations based on their nuclear mechanical signatures at a throughput of ~200 cells per hour. We show that Brillouin cytometry has sufficient sensitivity to detect physiologically-relevant changes in nuclear stiffness by probing the effect of drug-induced chromatin decondensation.

The mechanical properties of the cellular nucleus are extensively studied as they play a critical role in important processes, such as cell migration, gene transcription, and stem cell differentiation. While the mechanical properties of the isolated nucleus have been tested, there is a lack of measurements about the mechanical behavior of the nucleus within intact cells and specifically about the interplay of internal nuclear components with the intracellular microenvironment, because current testing methods are based on contact and only allow studying the nucleus after isolation from a cell or disruption of cytoskeleton. Here, all‐optical Brillouin microscopy and 3D chemomechanical modeling are used to investigate the regulation of nuclear mechanics in physiological conditions. It is observed that the nuclear modulus can be modulated by epigenetic regulation targeting internal nuclear nanostructures such as lamin A/C and chromatin. It is also found that nuclear modulus is strongly regulated by cytoskeletal behavior through a robust mechanism conserved in different culturing conditions. Given the active role of cytoskeletal modulation in nearly all cell functions, this work will enable to reveal highly relevant mechanisms of nuclear mechanical regulations in physiological and pathological conditions.

Brillouin spectroscopy probes the mechanical properties of material by measuring the optical frequency shift induced by photon-phonon scattering interactions. In traditional configurations, Brillouin spectrometers measure only one point of the sample at a time. This results in long acquisition times for mechanical imaging of large areas. In this work, we demonstrate a parallel detection configuration where the Brillouin shift of hundreds of points in a line can be measured simultaneously. In mm-sized samples, this novel configuration effectively shortens the acquisition time of two-dimensional Brillouin imaging from hours to tens of seconds, thus making it a powerful technology for label-free mechanical characterization of tissue and biomaterials.

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