Determination of the metabolic index using the fluorescence lifetime of free and bound nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide using the phasor approach.

The fluorescence lifetime of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) is commonly used in conjunction with the phasor approach as a molecular biomarker to provide information on cellular metabolism of autofluorescence imaging of cells and tissue. However, in the phasor approach, the bound and free lifetime defining the phasor metabolic trajectory is a subject of debate. The fluorescence lifetime of NADH increases when bound to an enzyme, in contrast to the short multiexponential lifetime displayed by NADH in solution. The extent of fluorescence lifetime increase depends on the enzyme to which NADH is bound. With proper preparation of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) using oxalic acid (OA) as an allosteric factor, bound NADH to LDH has a lifetime of 3.4 ns and is positioned on the universal semicircle of the phasor plot, inferring a monoexponential lifetime for this species. Surprisingly, measurements in the cellular environments with different metabolic states show a linear trajectory between free NADH at about 0.37 ns and bound NADH at 3.4 ns. These observations support that in a cellular environment, a 3.4 ns value could be used for bound NADH lifetime. The phasor analysis of many cell types shows a linear combination of fractional contributions of free and bound species NADH.

Imaging Fibrosis and Separating Collagens using Second Harmonic Generation and Phasor Approach to Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging.

In this paper we have used second harmonic generation (SHG) and phasor approach to auto fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) to obtain fingerprints of different collagens and then used these fingerprints to observe bone marrow fibrosis in the mouse femur. This is a label free approach towards fast automatable detection of fibrosis in tissue samples. FLIM has previously been used as a method of contrast in different tissues and in this paper phasor approach to FLIM is used to separate collagen I from collagen III, the markers of fibrosis, the largest groups of disorders that are often without any effective therapy. Often characterized by an increase in collagen content of the corresponding tissue, the samples are usually visualized by histochemical staining, which is pathologist dependent and cannot be automated.

Rapid measurement of molecular transport and interaction inside living cells using single plane illumination.

The ability to measure biomolecular dynamics within cells and tissues is very important to understand fundamental physiological processes including cell adhesion, signalling, movement, division or metabolism. Usually, such information is obtained using particle tracking methods or single point fluctuation spectroscopy. We show that image mean square displacement analysis, applied to single plane illumination microscopy data, is a faster and more efficient way of unravelling rapid, three-dimensional molecular transport and interaction within living cells. From a stack of camera images recorded in seconds, the type of dynamics such as free diffusion, flow or binding can be identified and quantified without being limited by current camera frame rates. Also, light exposure levels are very low and the image mean square displacement method does not require calibration of the microscope point spread function. To demonstrate the advantages of our approach, we quantified the dynamics of several different proteins in the cyto- and nucleoplasm of living cells. For example, from a single measurement, we were able to determine the diffusion coefficient of free clathrin molecules as well as the transport velocity of clathrin-coated vesicles involved in endocytosis. Used in conjunction with dual view detection, we further show how protein-protein interactions can be quantified.

Raster image correlation spectroscopy and number and brightness analysis.

The raster image correlation spectroscopy (RICS) and number and molecular brightness (N&B) methods are used to measure molecular diffusion in complex biological environments such as the cell interior, detect the formation of molecular aggregates, establish the stoichiometry of the aggregates, spatially map the number of mobile molecules, and quantify the relative fraction of molecules participating in molecular complexes. These methods are based on correlation of fluorescence intensity fluctuations from microscope images that can be measured in a conventional laser-scanning confocal microscope. In this chapter, we discuss the mathematical framework used for data analysis as well as the parameters need for data acquisition. We demonstrate the information obtainable by the N&B method using simulation in which different regions of an image have different numbers of interacting molecules. Then, using an example of two interacting proteins in the cell, we show in a real case how the RICS and N&B analyses work step by step to detect the existence of molecular complexes to quantify their properties and spatially map their interactions. We also discuss common control experiments needed to rule out instrumental artifacts and how to calibrate the microscope in terms of relative molecular brightness.