No abstract

Living cells maintain their lives through self-organization in an environment crowded with a rich variety of biological species. Recently, it was found that micro-droplets containing biomacromolecules, which vary widely in size, are generated accompanied by water/water phase-separation by simple mechanical mixing of an aqueous solution with binary polymers. Here, we report that cell-sized droplets of nearly the same size are generated as a linear array within a glass capillary upon the introduction of a binary polymer solution of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and dextran (DEX). Interestingly, when DNA molecules are added to the polymer solution, stable droplets entrapping DNA molecules are obtained. Similarly, living cells are entrapped spontaneously for the linearly-arranged cell-sized droplets. This simple method for generating micro-droplets entrapping DNA and also living cells is expected to stimulate further study on the self-construction of protocells and micro organoids.

We propose a novel method for measuring fluorescence lifetimes by use of a pulsed-excitation light source and an ordinary or a high-gain photomultiplier tube (PMT) with a high-load resistor. In order to obtain the values of fluorescence lifetimes, we adopt a normal data-processing procedure used in phase-modulation fluorometry. We apply an autoregressive (AR)-model-based data-analysis technique to fluorescence- and reference-response time-series data obtained from the PMT in order to derive plural values of phase differences at a repetition frequency of the pulsed-excitation light source and its harmonic ones. The connection of the high-load resistor enhances sensitivity in signal detection in a certain condition. Introduction of the AR-model-based data-analysis technique improves precision in estimating the values of fluorescence lifetimes. Depending on the value of the load resistor and that of the repetition frequency, plural values of fluorescence lifetimes are obtained at one time by utilizing the phase information of harmonic frequencies. Because the proposed measurement system is simple to construct, it might be effective when we need to know approximate values of fluorescence lifetimes readily, such as in the field of biochemistry for a screening purpose.