Engineered tumor cell apoptosis monitoring method based on dynamic laser tweezers

Monitoring the cells' apoptosis progression could provide a valuable insight into the temporal events that initiate cell death as well as the potential for rescue of apoptotic cells. In this paper, we engineered a novel and robust method for monitoring apoptosis of tumor cells based on dynamic laser tweezers, using A549 and HeLa cell line as typical samples. The entire experiment can be completed in a few hours with small amount of fluid sample, presenting great advantages of celerity, microscaled measurement, and label-free explorations without perturbing experimental conditions in combination with other probes. Validity and stability of this method are verified experimentally in terms of physical parameters of the system. The proposed technique has great potential in improving cancer treatment by monitoring the objective efficacy of tumor cell killing.