Here we demonstrate intracellular transport in fused mammalian cells. Mouse oocytes as a model system were subjected to the laser cell fusion. The contact point of the two oocytes cytoplasmic membranes was exposed to femtosecond laser pulses, which produce the membrane perforation and fusion and a slow change in the shape of the fused oocyte from ellipsoidal to spherical. A complex process of original oocytes cytoplasm mixing took place as a result of the fusion, involving mechanisms of intracellular transport and active diffusion. Fluorescence microscopy methods based on GFP and BODIPY staining were applied to visualize these mechanisms. We revealed that the small particles in cytosol of the oocytes are mixed almost diffusively, while the organelles and cytoskeleton, that are incapable of diffusion, are not mixed even within several hours after the very end of the oocyte fusion.
GFP, BODIPY, mouse oocytes, laser cell fusion, femtosecond laser
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