Eur. Phys. J. E (2008) 26: 435-448
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2007-10346-5

Internal dynamics of a living cell nucleus investigated by dynamic light scattering

¹ École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS, Université de Lyon, Laboratoire de Physique, 46 allée d’Italie, 69364, Lyon, France
² École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS, Université de Lyon, Laboratoire transdisciplinaire Joliot-Curie, 46 allée d’Italie, 69364, Lyon, France
³ École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS, Université de Lyon, Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire de la Cellule, 46 allée d’Italie, 69364, Lyon, France

^* e-mail: eric.freyssingeas@ens-lyon.fr

Received: 31 October 2007
Revised: 8 April 2008
Published online: 16 July 2008

Abstract

Recent progresses in cellular biology have shown that the nucleus of a living cell is a structured integration of many functional domains with a complex spatial organization. This organization, as well as molecular and biochemical processes, is time regulated. In the past years many investigations have been performed using fluorescent microscopy techniques to study the internal dynamics of the nucleus of a living cell. These investigations, however, have never focussed on the global internal dynamics of the nucleus, which is still unknown. In this article we present an original light scattering experimental device that we built to investigate this dynamics during biological processes. By means of this experimental set-up, we investigated the global dynamics of the nucleus of a living cell treated with a DNA replication inhibitor. This dynamics presents different and independent kinds of relaxation well separated in time that vary as a function of the cell cycle phases.