Measurement of lamellipodial protrusion by optical trapping

Lamellipodial protrusion is a fundamental step in cell locomotion. This important process is driven by actin polymerization, but its physical aspect has not yet been fully investigated. We previously studied the lamellipodial protrusion of Swiss 3T3 fibroblast cells at 33 ms temporal resolution and 10 nm accuracy by probing the motion of the cell edge with a 1μm bead held in an optical trap. In that study, we found a transient mode of protrusion and analyzed the time variation of the protrusion velocity. In this study, we analyzed the power spectra of the fluctuations of a trapheld bead during the protrusion and found cell-specific fluctuations. The maximal amplitude of the fluctuations was 23 nm, which was estimated from the power of the fluctuations accumulated over 1.9 and 7.6 Hz. This value was signifi cantly larger than that of the fluctuations of the trap-held bead that is not in contact with the cell edge (14 nm). The amplitude of the fluctuation of the probing bead showed a positive correlation with the cell edge velocity, suggesting that the cell-specific fluctuations play an important role in the lamellipodial protrusion.