We investigate the physics of an optically trapped red blood cell under physiological conditions. When a single, live red blood cell, is placed in an optical trap, the normal biconcave disk shaped cell is observed to undergo a folding action and thereby take up a rod like shape. If such an RBC has any shape anisotropies due to perturbation through malarial infection or hyperosmotic stress, it is observed to rotate in the linearly polarised laser field. Finally when such an optically trapped RBC is exposed to a shear flow, a tank treading like behaviour of the red blood cell membrane is visualised (wherein the RBC membrane revolves around the central body of the cell). The tank treading motion of a red blood cell held stationary in the optical trap allows for the dynamics to be viewed in a prolonged manner without the usage of earlier constraints such fast imaging system.

Date Published: 23 August 2011
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 8173, Photonics 2010: Tenth International Conference on Fiber Optics and Photonics, 817309 (23 August 2011); doi: 10.1117/12.897952

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8173:
Photonics 2010: Tenth International Conference on Fiber Optics and Photonics
Sunil K. Khijwania; Banshi D. Gupta; Bishnu P. Pal; Anurag Sharma, Editor(s)