3D Manipulation and Imaging of Plant Cells using Acoustically Activated Microbubbles

Abstract

The precise manipulation of single cells and organisms opens exciting new possibilities for biological research. In this work, an acoustic rotational manipulation method for imaging single cells of different plant species (pollen grains of Lilium longiflorum and Arabidopsis thaliana) is demonstrated. Acoustically activated microbubbles generate radiation forces as well as microvortices in the aqueous medium, which allow various specimens to be trapped and precisely rotated. The rotational behavior of individual plant cells is studied and their motion to facilitate 3D fluorescent microscopy is controlled. The use of this manipulation technique for high‐resolution 3D optical reconstructions of nontransparent samples is demonstrated. The applicability of this method for open‐microchannel arrangement, which may enable multiplexed 3D access to samples for microsurgery and injection, is further demonstrated.

Medical Micro/Nanorobots in Precision Medicine

“…[352] Similar nonmanipulation of living cells has also been achieved using acoustic streaming. [353,354] Blood cell-based coating has also been described for the rapid isolation of pathogens and toxins. Ultrasound [355] and chemically [356] powered nanorobots coated with red blood cell membranes have been demonstrated as motile sponges for isolating toxin in biological environments.…”

“…[ 352 ] Similar nonmanipulation of living cells has also been achieved using acoustic streaming. [ 353,354 ]…”

Advances in Micromanipulation Actuated by Vibration-Induced Acoustic Waves and Streaming Flow

“…Glass particles, fish eggs, and even live daphnia can be captured in this system (1.5 mm diameter bubbles, 4.5-15kHz drive frequency, 400 V drive voltage to piezoelectric actuators, and voltage of 80 V at 1 kHz are applied for electrowetting-on-dielectric actuation). Another simple method of bubble generation is designing a special cavity so that when liquid enters the channel, bubbles can be automatically formed or captured in it [77,78]. As shown in Figure 7b, the channel contains linear arrays of rectangular microcavities where microbubbles will be trapped due to the residual gas pressure when the liquid is injected.…”

“…A microbubble was enclosed in a semi-capsule-shaped robot, and the secondary Bjerknes force formed between the bubble and the actuator was used to drive the microrobot motion. [31], Ahmed et al [77,78], Xie et al [81,82], and Ren et al [83]. The reason why microbubbles and microrobots are classified into one category is that they both perform secondary micromanipulation, which means that their motion requires manipulation, and their motion characteristics drive the micromanipulation for other particles.…”

Embedded Microbubbles for Acoustic Manipulation of Single Cells and Microfluidic Applications

“…To overcome these challenges, microstreaming induced by an oscillating microbubble can be utilized. The streaming patterns of the microbubble can be switched from in-plane to out-of-plane streaming via altering the excitation frequency, allowing for controlled threedimensional rotations of cells and organisms, [10][11][12][13] as well as microfluidic applications including pumping or mixing. [14][15][16] Due to its high compressibility and the corresponding strong oscillations, the microvortices produced by acoustically-activated microbubbles are significantly enhanced compared to the ones caused through the vibration of solid structures.…”