Frequency-dependent cell death by optical tweezers manipulation.

Optical tweezers were used to scan individual Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia cells to determine if the cell death depends on the scanning conditions. Although increasing the scanning frequency or amplitude means greater force applied to the cells, their effects on cell death are not a simple increasing trend, as observed in the optical microscopy. Indeed, cell death sharply increased at particular screening frequencies and amplitudes, whereas other frequencies or amplitudes were less detrimental. These results suggest that cell damage was more sensitive to certain scanning conditions, rather than simply high-applied forces.