Mechanical property has been recognized as one of critical factors for tissue and organ development during morphogenesis. Here, we used two modalities of broad band optical tweezer-based active microrheology (7Hz – 15kHz) and Brillouin microscopy (~GHz) not only to measure the mechanical homeostasis of larval zebrafish brain parenchyma <i>in vivo</i> but also to investigate the immune role on the mechanics of developing brain during morphogenesis. Optical tweezer results show the mechanical heterogeneities of brain in the function of fore-, mid-, and hind- brain with viscoelastic behavior. As the development aging progresses, all brain regions become stiffer especially with the most increase in the hind brain. Similar measurements in a mutant zebrafish line (panther) where csf1ra, a paralogue of csf1r, is not functional show the different mechanical trend and property within brain regions compared to wild-type fish. Brillouin results also show the similar results in terms of the mechanical heterogeneities of brain regions in both wild-type and mutant zebrafish. Therefore, our works demonstrate the correlation between two modalities at different temporal scales (Hz – kHz vs. GHz) in characterizing mechanical heterogeneities of larval zebrafish brain. After distinguishing the different brain mechanics in the function of brain region and immune, zebrafish melanoma was injected into the brain to study its adaptation in vivo with Brillouin microscopy to observe stiffer trend (higher Brillouin shift) in wild type compared to panther.

Macrophage mediated brain mechanotransduction

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ACS Fall 2022

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