Morphological evaluation of cell differentiation after the isolation of single cells by a femtosecond laser-induced impulsive force.

When nerve growth factor (NGF) is interacted with PC12 cells derived from rat pheochromocytoma, they are partially differentiated into neuron-like cells with neurites. In this work, PC12 cells differentiated by NGF were selectively isolated using a localized impulsive force in a μm-scale area, which was generated by focusing an infrared femtosecond laser into a cell culture medium. In order to evaluate the ability of the isolation method, differentiated and undifferentiated cells were isolated and their morphological changes after the isolation were compared. In both cases, their neurites were once contracted and some of them gradually regenerated day by day. When differentiated cells were isolated, the percentage of differentiated cells with regenerated neurites, 6 h after the isolation, was about 3.3 times higher than that when undifferentiated ones were isolated. This result was compared with a control trypsin experiment. In the comparison, it was indicated that the same degree of cell function was maintained when the present isolation method was used.