A subscription to JoVE is required to view this content. Sign in or start your free trial.
We report a stage-top, flexible environmental chamber for time-lapse imaging of live cells using upright stimulated Raman scattering microscopy with transmitted signal detection. Lipid droplets were imaged in SKOV3 cells treated with oleic acid for up to 24 h with a 3 min time interval.
Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy is a label-free chemical imaging technology. Live-cell imaging with SRS has been demonstrated for many biological and biomedical applications. However, long-term time-lapse SRS imaging of live cells has not been widely adopted. SRS microscopy often uses a high numerical aperture (NA) water-immersion objective and a high NA oil-immersion condenser to achieve high-resolution imaging. In this case, the gap between the objective and the condenser is only a few millimeters. Therefore, most commercial stage-top environmental chambers cannot be used for SRS imaging because of their large thickness with a rigid glass cover. This paper describes the design and fabrication of a flexible chamber that can be used for time-lapse live-cell imaging with transmitted SRS signal detection on an upright microscope frame. The flexibility of the chamber is achieved by using a soft material - a thin natural rubber film. The new enclosure and chamber design can be easily added to an existing SRS imaging setup. The testing and preliminary results demonstrate that the flexible chamber system enables stable, long-term, time-lapse SRS imaging of live cells, which can be used for various bioimaging applications in the future.
Optical microscopy is used to observe the microstructures of samples. Optical imaging is rapid, less invasive, and less destructive than other technologies1. Live-cell imaging with optical microscopy is developed to capture the dynamics of cultured live cells over a long period2. Different types of optical contrasts provide distinct information about biological samples. For instance, optical phase microscopy shows the subtle difference in the refractive indices across the sample3. Fluorescence microscopy is widely used to image specific biomolecules or cellular organelles. However, the broadband e....
1. Build the microscope environmental enclosure
NOTE: This large microscope environmental enclosure is used to control the temperature of the microscope body and the imaging environment to be stabilized at 37 °C (Figure 1A).
We fabricated and assembled the flexible chamber system for time-lapse SRS imaging (Figure 1 and Figure 2), and then evaluated the performance of the system. The temperature inside the microscope environmental enclosure reached the expected 37 °C within 1 h, which did not significantly affect the room temperature (Figure 3A). The temperature in the flexible chamber reached 37 °C in 1.5 h, and it was stably maintained at 37.......
Time-lapse live-cell SRS microscopy is an alternative imaging technique for molecule tracking in a label-free manner. Compared to fluorescence labeling, SRS imaging is free from photobleaching, enabling long-term monitoring of molecules. However, to date, the live cell imaging system on an upright SRS microscopy is not commercially available. In this work, a live cell imaging system with a stable thermal-insulated microscope enclosure box and a flexible inner soft chamber was developed to enable transmitted SRS time-laps.......
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
We want to thank the 2019 Undergraduate Senior Design Team (Suk Chul Yoon, Ian Foxton, Louis Mazza, and James Walsh) at Binghamton University for the design, fabrication, and testing of the microscope enclosure box. We thank Scott Hancock, Olga Petrova, and Fabiola Moreno Olivas at Binghamton University for helpful discussions. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R15GM140444.
....Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
A lab-built SRS microscope | https://rdcu.be/cP6ve | ||
HF2LI 50 MHz lock-in amplifer | Zurich Instruments | HF2LI | |
Iris diaphragm | Thorlabs Inc | SM1D12 | |
Kinematic mirror mount | Thorlabs Inc | KM100 | |
Microscope frame | Nikon Inc | FN-1 | |
Motorized microscopy stage | Prior Scientific | Z-Deck | |
Oil-immersion condenser (C-AA Achromat/Aplanat, NA 1.4) | Nikon Inc | MBL71405 | |
Water-immersion objective (CFI75 Apo 25XC W 1300) | Nikon Inc | MRD77225 | |
Materials and parts for the microscope enclosure (31'' x 29'' x 28'' L x W x H) | |||
Airtherm heater module | World Precision Instruments (WPI) | AIRTHERM-SAT-1W | |
Airtherm heater controller, CO2 and humidity monitor | World Precision Instruments (WPI) | AIRTHERM-SMT-1W | |
Air/CO2 mixer module | World Precision Instruments (WPI) | ECU-HOC-W | |
Flexible duct hose (2-1/2'' ID, 2-3/4'' OD) | McMaster-Carr | 56675K71 | |
High-temperature glass-mica ceramic, easy-to-machine (6'' x 6'', 1/4'' thickness) | McMaster-Carr | 8489K62 | |
Polycarbonate sheets (thickness 0.25'') | McMaster-Carr | 8574K286 | |
Silicone rubber sheets (36'' x 36'', thickness 1/8'') | McMaster-Carr | 5827T43 | |
Materials and parts for the Flexible chamber | |||
Hot plate | McMaster-Carr | 31745K11 | |
High-purity inline filter, 1/4 NPT | McMaster-Carr | 6645T18 | |
Hole saw (cutting diameter 1-7/8 inch) | McMaster-Carr | 4066A34 | |
Hole saw (cutting diameter 50 mm) | McMaster-Carr | 4556A19 | |
High-temperature silicone rubber tubing, soft, 2 mm ID, 5 mm OD | McMaster-Carr | 5054K313 | |
Inline filter (1/4 NPT, 40 micron) | McMaster-Carr | 98385K843 | |
Multipurpose 6061 Aluminum round tube (1/8'' wall thickness, 4'' OD) | McMaster-Carr | 9056K42 | |
Multipurpose 6061 Aluminum round tube (3/4'' wall thickness, 3-3/4'' OD) | McMaster-Carr | 9056K47 | |
Multipurpose 6061 Aluminum bar (12'' x 12'', thickness 1/4'') | McMaster-Carr | 8975K142 | |
Multipurpose 6061 Aluminum bar (8'' x 8'', thickness 3/8'') | McMaster-Carr | 9246K21 | |
Objective nosepiece (single) | Nikon Inc | FN-MN-H | |
Sample holder (modified) | Prior Scientific | HZ202 | |
Ultra-thin natural rubber film (thickness 0.01'') | McMaster-Carr | 8611K13 | |
Vacuum-sealable glass jar | McMaster-Carr | 3231T44 | |
Software | |||
MATLAB | MathWorks | ||
ImageJ (Fiji) | imagej.net | ||
ScanImage | Vidrio Technologies, LLC | SRS imaging software | |
Materials for live-cell imaging | |||
Cover glass bottom sterile culture dishes (Dia.x H, 50 x 7 mm) | Electron Microscopy Sciences (EMS) | 70674-02 | |
DMEM cell culture medium | ThermoFisher Scientific | 11965092 | |
Fetal bovine serum (FBS) | ThermoFisher Scientific | 26140079 | |
LysoSensor fluorescent dye DND-189 | ThermoFisher Scientific | L7535 (Invitrogen) | |
Oleic acid | MilliporeSigma | 364525 | |
SKOV3 cell line | ATCC | HTB-77 |
Request permission to reuse the text or figures of this JoVE article
Request PermissionExplore More Articles
This article has been published
Video Coming Soon
Copyright © 2025 MyJoVE Corporation. All rights reserved