The imaging of live cell membranes in physiological conditions in nanometer scale has been the hope that must be accomplished for biologists. Scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) can acquire the surface morphology of biological soft materials in liquid directly. The SICM uses ionic current as feedback signal by detecting it through the nano-size opening of glass pipette. The dedicated SICM operating mode called approach and retract scanning (ARS) makes SICM imaging stable in liquid environment. The SICM three-dimensional topographical image is generated by composing the recorded height information at each pixels. The in-liquid imaging capability without physical contact allows using SICM for various cell study topics in live status such as cell division, fusion, and other fundamental physiological phenomena.<br/> <br/>In this study, we examined cell-to-cell interaction and cell’s plasma membrane transformation. By imaging live brain tumor cell with SICM at the connective position between two cells, we successfully acquired the interactive morphological changes of cell’s adhesion molecule at the edge in sequence. From the series of non-invasive cell morphological images, acquired in three dimension, we also calculated and monitored the velocity of membrane transformation and membrane holes volume changes.<br/>

High resolution imaging of live cell dynamics using scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM)

251st National Meeting (2016)

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