Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 8, 2025
12:01
Quantification and Size-profiling of Extracellular Vesicles Using Tunable Resistive Pulse Sensing
Published on: October 19, 2014
19.7K
Correlating Molecule Count and Release Kinetics with Vesicular Size Using Open Carbon Nanopipettes
Keke Hu1, Rui Jia2,3, Amir Hatamie1
1Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg, Kemivägen 10, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden.
Journal of the American Chemical Society
|September 16, 2020
Summary
Open carbon nanopipettes enabled vesicle impact electrochemical cytometry to measure catecholamine release from single vesicles. Vesicle content and release speed correlate with vesicle size, revealing insights into exocytosis.
Area of Science:
- Nanotechnology
- Electrochemistry
- Cell Biology
Background:
- Vesicular transport is crucial for cellular function, but understanding the dynamics of content release from individual vesicles remains challenging.
- Existing methods often lack the sensitivity or spatial resolution to analyze single vesicle exocytosis in real-time within living cells.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and apply a novel nanoelectrochemical method for analyzing single vesicle content release.
- To correlate vesicle size with the quantity and release kinetics of catecholamine transmitters.
- To investigate the relationship between vesicular dense core size and exocytosis speed.
Main Methods:
- Utilized open carbon nanopipettes (CNPs) with radii of 50–600 nm for controlled vesicle translocation.
- Employed vesicle impact electrochemical cytometry (VIEC) for nanoelectrochemical analysis of expelled molecules.
- Quantified transmitter release duration and correlated it with vesicle size in situ within living cells.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated that vesicular content increases proportionally with vesicle size.
- Established a direct correlation between vesicle size and the kinetics of transmitter release.
- Found that the size of the vesicular dense core dictates the speed of the release event.
Conclusions:
- Vesicle impact electrochemical cytometry with carbon nanopipettes offers a sensitive and minimally invasive approach for analyzing single vesicle exocytosis.
- Vesicle size is a key determinant of both content quantity and release dynamics.
- The dense core size of vesicles directly influences the speed of neurotransmitter release, providing a deeper understanding of exocytosis mechanisms.
