Shape, membrane morphology, and morphodynamic response of metabolically active human mitochondria revealed by scanning ion conductance microscopy

• Eric Lieberwirth,
• Anja Schaeper,
• Regina Lange,
• Ingo Barke,
• Simone Baltrusch and
• Sylvia Speller

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 951–967, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.73

• local environment. The similarities between the nanopipette in the measurement setup and the microtubules in the cellular context are discussed as the basis for the hypothesis. Keywords: HeLa; metabolically active; mitochondria; morphodynamics; scanning ion conductance microscopy; Introduction

• . One of these effects appears to be associated to the dynamics of the mitochondria’s morphology (in the following referred to as morphodynamics, cf. [6]) and their contact with the measurement environment. Finally, we propose hypotheses to explain the observed effects. Results Viability of the

• their metabolic performance. These fast adaptive behaviours are referred to as morphodynamic effects, or morphodynamics for short [6]. In the context of SICM, morphodynamic changes in mitochondrial shape can be directly observed. Because of the comparatively long measurement time in relation to other