Apparatus for perforating membrane
AssigneeAkita Prefectural University
InventorTakashi Saito
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of perforating a membrane and an apparatus therefor is presented. The method includes bringing a membrane-denaturing substance into contact with or close proximity to at least a site of the membrane, the substance inducing a membrane-denaturing reaction by a stimulus; providing the stimulus to the substance so as to denature the membrane; and perforating the membrane with a membrane-destroying member. The stimulus is carried through the membrane-destroying member. The present invention eliminates the influence of the membrane-denaturing agent on the substance to be injected into the cell. The present invention also enables applying the stimulus locally, with a simple construction.
Claims18
A cell membrane perforating apparatus comprising:
- an ultraviolet light source;
- a photosensitizer or photocatalyst as a membrane-denaturing substance that induces a temporarily membrane-denaturing reaction when irradiated with ultraviolet light wherein said temporarily membrane-denaturing reaction is obtained by chain peroxidation of the membrane with generation of reactive oxygen species by combination with said photosensitizer or photocatalyst and ultraviolet light;
- and
- a membrane-perforating member that has a tip having a size sufficiently small to penetrate the membrane of a singular cell, supports said photosensitizer or photocatalyst so as to bring said photosensitizer or photocatalyst in contact with or close proximity to a portion of said membrane of the singular cell and carries the light supplied by said ultraviolet light source therethrough to irradiate said photosensitizer or photocatalyst supported by said membrane-perforating member to induce said temporarily membrane-denaturing reaction at said portion of the membrane of the singular cell;
- wherein said membrane-perforating member is configured to be moveable at a speed sufficiently low to contact and penetrate a denatured portion of said membrane of the singular cell without causing cell death.
An apparatus for denaturing a portion of cell membrane,
- an ultraviolet light source:
- a photosensitizer or photocatalyst as a membrane-denaturing substance that induces a temporarily membrane-denaturing reaction when irradiated with ultraviolet light:
- and
- a support member that has a tip having a size sufficiently small to contact a portion of a membrane of a singular cell, and said support member configured to support said membrane-denaturing substance at least at said tip so as to bring said membrane-denaturing substance in contact with or close proximity to said portion of the membrane of a singular cell and to carry the ultraviolet light supplied by said ultraviolet source therethrough to irradiate said membrane-denaturing substance supported by said tip of the support member to induce said temporarily membrane-denaturing reaction at said portion of the membrane to obtain a denatured portion on said portion of the membrane of the singular cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.