Probing Micromechanical Properties of Biological Cells by Oscillatory Optical Tweezers

We used oscillatory optical tweezers to probe the micromechanical properties of cultured alveolar epithelial cells in vitro. The frequency-dependent viscoelasticity of these cells was measured by optical trapping and forced oscillation of either a submicron endogenous intracellular organelle (intra-cellular) or a 1.5$\mu $m silica bead attached to the cytoskeleton through trans-membrane integrin receptors (extra-cellular). Both the storage modulus and the magnitude of the complex shear modulus followed weak power-law dependence with frequency. These data are comparable to data obtained by other measurement techniques. The exponents of power-law dependence of the data from the intra- and extra- cellular measurements are similar, whereas, the differences in the magnitudes of the moluli from the two measurements are statistically significant.