Temperature is a fundamental process that’s important to a wide array of biological processes, and better understanding of how cells react to changes in temperature on an individual basis is critical to our overall understanding of these functions. Aleksandr Lanin and colleagues have been able to demonstrate that they can control the temperature of the neurons using a tunable optical parametric amplifier (OPO) and read out the temperature using an optical fiber probe with a nitrogen-vacancy nanodiamond functionalized tip. This method allows for heating to be localized to a region smaller than the distance between the neuronal cells (100 µm), so that these measurements can be performed on individual neurons. By using a calcium sensitive emitter (GCaMP6s) it can be seen that the calcium activity across the cell membrane increase dramatically once you cross above the temperature threshold of 27.4°C, the activation threshold for the TRPA1 channel.

---

---

 Add Comment

You must log in to add comments.