Passive versus active local microrheology in mammalian cells and amoebae

C. Rivière¹ - F. Gazeau¹ - S. Marion² - J.--C. Bacri¹ - C. Wilhelm¹

¹ P\^{o}le Matière et Systèmes Complexes, University Paris 7 -- Denis Diderot and CNRS FR2438, France
² Pasteur Institute, Inserm U389, France

Abstract
We compare in this paper the rotational magnetic microrheology detailed by Marion \etal [18] and Wilhelm \etal [19] to the passive tracking microrheology. The rotational microrheology has been designed to explore, using magnetic rotating probes, the local intracellular microenvironment of living cells in terms of viscoelasticity. Passive microrheology techniques is based on the analysis of spontaneous diffusive motions of Brownian probes. The dependence of mean square displacement (MSD) with the time then directly reflects the type of movement (sub-, hyper- or diffusive motions). Using the same intracellular probes, we performed two types of measurements (active and passive). Based on the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, one should obtain the same information from the both techniques in a thermally equilibrium system. Interestingly, our measurements differ, and the discordances directly inform on active biological processes, which add to thermally activated fluctuations in our out-of equilibrium systems. In both cell models used, mammalian Hela cells and amoebae Entamoeba Histolytica, a hyper-diffusive regime at a short time is observed, which highlights the presence of an active non-thermal driving force, acting on the probe. However, the nature of this active force in mammalian cells and amoebae is different, according to their different phenotypes. In mammalian cells active processes are governed by the transport, via molecular motors, on the microtubule network. In amoebae, which are highly motile cells free of microtubule network, the active processes are dominated by strong fluxes of cytoplasm driven by extension of pseudopodia, in random directions, leading to an amplitude of motion one order of magnitude higher than for mammalian cells. Figs 7, Refs 32.