Laurdan Spectroscopy

The Laurdan stock solution (1 mM) was prepared by dissolving the powder stocks in methanol and then was either used fresh or stored at −20 °C. To obtain a final concentration of 10 μM Laurdan, 1 μL of stock Laurdan was mixed with 99 μL of bead samples (from previous section). Spectroscopic measurements were performed on a TECAN Spark multimode microplate reader (Männedorf, Switzerland) using a 96-well black with clear flat bottom polystyrene plate (Corning Inc., Tewksbury, MA, USA). An excitation wavelength of 340 nm was used, and emission wavelengths from 400 to 520 nm were collected. For G) calculations, the following equation was used:

where I₄₄₀ and I₄₉₀ refer to the steady state intensities at 440 and 490 nm, respectively.