Detection of swelling of single isolated mitochondrion with optical microscopy

Daisuke Morikawa; Keita Kanematsu; Takahiro Shibata; Keisuke Haseda; Norihiro Umeda; Yoshihiro Ohta

doi:10.1364/BOE.5.000848

Detection of swelling of single isolated mitochondrion with optical microscopy

Biomed Opt Express. 2014 Feb 24;5(3):848-57. doi: 10.1364/BOE.5.000848. eCollection 2014 Mar 1.

Authors

Daisuke Morikawa¹, Keita Kanematsu¹, Takahiro Shibata¹, Keisuke Haseda¹, Norihiro Umeda², Yoshihiro Ohta¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Biotechnology and Life Sciences, Institute of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Nakacho 2-24-16, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan.
² Division of Mechanical System Engineering, Institute of Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Nakacho 2-24-16, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan.

Abstract

Volume regulation under osmotic loading is one of the most fundamental functions in cells and organelles. However, the effective method to detect volume changes of a single organelle has not been developed. Here, we present a novel technique for detecting volume changes of a single isolated mitochondrion in aqueous solution based on the transmittance of the light through the mitochondrion. We found that 70% and 21% of mitochondria swelled upon addition of a hypotonic solution and Ca(2+), respectively. These results show the potential of the present technique to detect the physiological volume changes of individual small organelles such as mitochondria.

Keywords: (000.1430) Biology and medicine; (170.2655) Functional monitoring and imaging.