Surface plasmon resonance imaging of excitable cells.

Surface plasmons (SPs) are surface charge density oscillations occuring at a metal/dieletric interface and are highly sensitive to refractive index variations adjacent to the surface. This sensitivity has been exploited successfully for chemical and biological assays. In these systems, a surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based sensor detects temporal variations in the refractive index at a point. SPR has also been used in imaging systems where the spatial variations of refractive index in the sample provide the contrast mechanism. SPR imaging systems using high numerical aperture (NA) objective lenses have been designed to image adherent live cells with high magnification and near-diffraction limited spatial resolution. Addressing research questions in cell physiology and pharmacology often requires the development of a multimodal microscope where complementary information can be obtained. In this paper, we present the development of a multimodal microscope that combines SPR imaging with a number of additional imaging modalities including bright-field, epifluorescence, total internal reflection microscopy and SPR fluorescence microscopy. We used a high NA objective lens for SPR and TIR microscopy and the platform has been used to image live cell cultures demonstrating both fluorescent and label-free techniques. Both the SPR and TIR imaging systems feature a wide field of view (~300 µm) that allows measurements from multiple cells whilst maintaining a resolution sufficient to image fine cellular processes. The capability of the platform to perform label-free functional imaging of living cells was demonstrated by imaging the spatial variations in contractions from stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. This technique shows promise for non-invasive imaging of cultured cells over very long periods of time during development.