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Biomedical subjects

G H Koenderink

Publications and source records attributed to G H Koenderink.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Correlated fluctuations of microparticles in viscoelastic solutions: quantitative measurement of material properties by microrheology in the presence of optical traps.

The Brownian motions of microscopic particles in viscous or viscoelastic fluids can be used to measure rheological properties. This is the basis of recently developed one- and two-particle microrheology techniques. For increased temporal and spatial resolution, some microrheology techniques employ optical traps, which introduce additional forces on the particles. We have systematically studied the effect that confinement of particles by optical traps has on their auto- and cross-correlated fluctuations. We show that trapping causes anticorrelations in the motion of two particles at low frequencies. We demonstrate how these anticorrelations depend on trap strength and the shear modulus of viscoelastic media. We present a method to account for the effects of optical traps, which permits the quantitative measurement of viscoelastic properties in one- and two-particle microrheology over an extended frequency range in a variety of viscous and viscoelastic media.

Journal Article↗

High-frequency stress relaxation in semiflexible polymer solutions and networks.

We measure the linear viscoelasticity of sterically entangled and chemically cross-linked networks of actin filaments over more than five decades of frequency. The high-frequency response reveals rich dynamics unique to semiflexible polymers, including a previously unobserved relaxation due to rapid axial tension propagation. For high molecular weight, and for cross-linked gels, we obtain quantitative agreement with predicted shear moduli in both amplitude and frequency dependence.

Actin Cytoskeleton↗

Short-time inertial response of viscoelastic fluids: observation of vortex propagation.

We probe the response of viscous and viscoelastic fluids on micrometer and microsecond length and time scales using two optically trapped beads. In this way we resolve the flow field, which exhibits clear effects of fluid inertia. Specifically, we resolve the short-time vortex flow and the corresponding evolution of this vortex, which propagates diffusively for simple liquids. For viscoelastic fluids, this propagation is shown to be faster than diffusive and the displacement correlations reflect the frequency-dependent shear modulus of the medium.

Journal Article↗

Rotational dynamics of colloidal spheres probed with fluorescence recovery after photobleaching.

We report a polarized fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (pFRAP) method to measure the rotational dynamics of fluorescent colloids over a wide dynamic range. The method is based on the polarization anisotropy in the fluorescence intensity, generated by bleaching of fluorescently labeled particles with an intense pulse of linearly polarized laser light. The rotational mobilities of the fluorescent particles can be extracted from the relaxation kinetics of the postbleach fluorescence polarization anisotropy. Our pFRAP setup has access to correlation times over a range of time scales from tens of microseconds to tens of seconds, and is highly sensitive, so very low concentrations of labeled particles can be probed. We present a detailed description of the theoretical background of pFRAP. The performance of the equipment is demonstrated for fluorescent colloidal silica spheres, dispersed in pure solvents as well as in fd-virus suspensions.

Biomechanical Phenomena↗

Direct measurement of entropic forces induced by rigid rods.

We present the first direct depletion potential measurements for a single colloidal sphere close to a wall in a suspension of rigid colloidal rods. Since all particle interactions are as good as hard-core-like, the depletion potentials are of entirely entropic origin. We developed a density functional theory approach that accurately accounts for this experimental situation. The depletion potentials calculated for different rod number densities are in very good quantitative agreement with the experimental results.

Colloids↗

Rotational tracer diffusion in binary colloidal sphere mixtures.

We demonstrate that tracer/host size asymmetry and electrostatic interactions strongly affect rotational self-diffusion in binary mixtures of charged colloidal tracer and host spheres. Tracer diffusion coefficients, measured with time-resolved phosphorescence anisotropy, are compared with calculations of rotational diffusion including two- and three-particle hydrodynamic interactions. We also show that the inverse dependence of the rotational diffusion coefficient on the suspension viscosity is approached only at large size ratios.

Journal Article↗