Issue 16, 2022

Continuous live cell imaging using dark field microscopy

Abstract

The optical observation of live cell behavior is critical for biological and biomedical studies. The development of techniques for long-term cell and tissue imaging is, however, hindered by phototoxicity induced by excited fluorophores. We, herein, propose a methodology to capture live cell behavior using dark field microscopy (DM). Since the light intensity of DM is merely ∼0.1% of bright-field microscopy (BM) and ∼0.5% of fluorescence microscopy (FM), it allows super long and frequent live cell imaging. Our results demonstrate that continuous exposure to DM light for 48 h brings about no observable effect on the growth rate of 3T3 fibroblasts and HepG2 hepatoma cells, indicating minimum photo-toxicity. Moreover, DM images show contrast comparable to FM, which does not depend on the probes and staining efficiency. We, therefore, conclude that the proposed approach is suitable for long-term live cell imaging with super-high temporal resolution.

Graphical abstract: Continuous live cell imaging using dark field microscopy

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Mar 2022
Accepted
16 Mar 2022
First published
18 Mar 2022

Anal. Methods, 2022,14, 1634-1637

Continuous live cell imaging using dark field microscopy

Y. Zeng, R. Cao, J. Zhu, W. Zhao, D. Sun and C. Zhang, Anal. Methods, 2022, 14, 1634 DOI: 10.1039/D2AY00043A

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