Biomolecular Imaging of Cellular Uptake of Nanoparticles using Multimodal Nonlinear Optical Microscopy
Summary
This article presents the integration of a spectral-focusing module and a dual-output pulse laser, enabling rapid hyperspectral imaging of gold nanoparticles and cancer cells. This work aims to demonstrate the details of multimodal nonlinear optical techniques on a standard laser scanning microscope.
Abstract
Probing gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in living systems is essential to reveal the interaction between AuNPs and biological tissues. Moreover, by integrating nonlinear optical signals such as stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF), and transient absorption (TA) into an imaging platform, it can be used to reveal biomolecular contrast of cellular structures and AuNPs in a multimodal manner. This article presents a multimodal nonlinear optical microscopy and applies it to perform chemically specific imaging of AuNPs in cancer cells. This imaging platform provides a novel approach for developing more efficient functionalized AuNPs and determining whether they are within vasculatures surrounding the tumor, pericellular, or cellular spaces.
Introduction
Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have shown great potential as biocompatible imaging probes, for example, as effective surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) substrates in various biomedical applications. Major applications include fields such as biosensing, bioimaging, surface-enhanced spectroscopies, and photothermal therapy for cancer treatment1. Furthermore, probing AuNPs in living systems is crucial to assessing and understanding the interaction between AuNPs and biological systems. There are various analytical techniques, including Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy2, laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)3, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)4 that have been successfully used to investigate the distribution of AuNPs in tissues. Nevertheless, these methods suffer from several drawbacks such as being time-consuming and involving complex sample preparation3, requiring long acquisition times, or the lack of sub-micron spatial resolution2,4.
Compared to conventional imaging techniques, nonlinear optical microscopy offers several advantages for probing live cells and AuNPs: The nonlinear optical microscopy achieves deeper imaging depth and provides intrinsic 3D optical sectioning capability with the use of near-IR ultrafast lasers. With the significant improvement of imaging speed and detection sensitivity, two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF)5,6,7 and second harmonic generation (SHG)8,9,10 microscopy have been demonstrated to further improve non-invasive imaging of endogenous biomolecules in living cells and tissues. Moreover, utilizing novel pump-probe nonlinear optical techniques such as transient absorption (TA)11,12,13,14 and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS)15,16,17,18, it is possible to derive label-free biochemical contrast of cellular structures and AuNPs. Visualizing AuNPs without the use of extrinsic labels is of great importance since chemical perturbations of the nanoparticles will modify their physical properties and hence their uptake in cells.
This protocol presents the implementation of a Spectral Focusing Timing and Recombination Unit (SF-TRU) module for a dual-wavelength pulse laser, enabling fast multimodal imaging of AuNPs and cancer cells. This work aims to demonstrate the details of integrated TPEF, TA, and SRS techniques on a laser scanning microscope.
Protocol
Representative Results
Discussion
This study has presented the combination of SF-TRU module and ultrafast dual-output laser system demonstrated its applications for multimodal microspectroscopy. With its ability to investigate gold nanoparticles’ (AuNPs’) uptake by cancer cells, the multimodal imaging platform can visualize the cellular responses to hyperthermic cancer treatments when laser beams are absorbed by AuNPs.
Moreover, rapid chemically specific imaging and high spectral resolution are achieved by employin…
Offenlegungen
The authors have nothing to disclose.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by EPSRC Grants: Raman Nanotheranostics (EP/R020965/1) and CONTRAST facility (EP/S009957/1).
Materials
| APE SRS Detection Unit | APE (Angewandte Physik & Elektronik GmbH) | APE Lock-in Module | Combined system containing a large area Si photo-diode for detecting the pump beam along with a Lock-In amplifier for detecting the beam modulations |
| Confocal Scanning Unit | Olympus | FV 3000 | Confocal scanning unit used for imaging |
| CML Latex Beads, 4% w/v, 1.0 µm | Invitrogen | C37483 | Polystyrene microspheres |
| Coverslips | Thorlabs | CG15CH2 | 22 mm x 22 mm coverslips for seeding cells |
| FBS | Gibco | 10500-064 | Foetal Bovine Serum (Heat Inactivated) |
| Flouview | Olympus | FV31S-SW | Laser scanning microscope control software |
| Function Generator | BX precision | 40543 | Used to generate square wave function which is fed to EOM in SF-TRU to produce modulations in the stokes beam |
| FV3000 | Olympus | IX83P2ZF | Other microscope frames can be used. |
| Gold Nanoparticles | Nanopartz | A11-60 | Spherical gold nanoparticles, 60 nm diameter |
| Input Output Interface | Olympus | FV30 ANALOG | This unit allows voltage readouts from PMT and LockIn to be fed into the confocal scanning software and allows timing pulses to be sent between the olympus microscope and the SF-TRU unit. |
| InSight X3 | Newport | Spectra-Physics | Dual-output femtosecond pulsed laser. Tunable (680–1300 nm) and fixed (1045 nm) laser outputs with the repetition rate of 80 MHz. |
| Microscope Frame | Olympus | IX83 | Inverted microscope |
| Mouse 4T1 cells | ATCC | CRL-2539 | Mouse breast cancer cells |
| NA 1.2 Water Immersion Objective | Olympus | UPLSAPO60XW/IR | The multiphoton 60x Objective has a 0.28 mm working distance. Other similar objectives can be used. |
| NA 1.4 Condenser | Nikon | CSC1003 | Other condensers with NA higher than the excitation objective can also be used. |
| PMT | Hamamatsu | R3896 | PMT used for detecting anti-stokes photos for CARS micrsocopy |
| PMT Connector | Hamamatsu | C13654-01-Y002 | Connector for PMT |
| Power Supply | RS | RSPD-3303 C | Programmable power supply which is used for providing the correct voltage to the PMT |
| RPMI-1640 | Gibco | A10491-01 | Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) 1640 Medium has since been found suitable for a variety of mammalian cells. |
| SF-TRU | Newport Spectra Physics | SF-TRU | System designed for controlling the time delay and dispersion of the 2 laser outputs and for performing the beam modulations required for SRS |
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