Protocol to measure the membrane tension and bending modulus of cells using optical tweezers and scanning electron microscopy

Abstract

Summary: The elastic properties of cell membranes, particularly the membrane tension and bending modulus, are known to be key regulators of cellular functions. Here, we present a correlative and integrated tool based on optical tweezers and scanning electron microscopy to accurately determine these properties in a variety of cell types. Although there are intrinsic difficulties associated with correlative experiments, we believe that the methods presented can be considered a suitable protocol for determining the elastic properties of cell membranes.For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Soares et al. (2020).

Keywords

• Biophysics
• Cell biology
• Cell membrane
• Microscopy