Abstract
Femtosecond laser pulses in the near-infrared region can be used to selectively disrupt and dissect intracellular organelles. We review intracellular surgery of organelles in living cells using a femtosecond laser. We demonstrate surgery of mitochondria in living HeLa cells in vitro using an amplifier with a repetition rate of 1 kHz and only a femtosecond laser oscillator with a repetition rate of 76 MHz. The viability of the cells after disruption of a single mitochondrion was confirmed by the observation of cell division, indicating that intracellular disruption of organelles using a femtosecond laser can be performed without compromising the longterm cell viability. Femtosecond laser-based nanosurgery has the possibility to provide space-selective information on the function and dynamics of organelles in living cells.
