Open AccessLabel-free cell-substrate adhesion imaging on plasmonic nanocup arrays
Author(s) -
Lisa Hackett,
Sook Jae Seo,
S. Kim,
Lynford L. Goddard,
G. L. Liu
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
biomedical optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.362
H-Index - 86
ISSN - 2156-7085
DOI - 10.1364/boe.8.001139
Subject(s) - materials science , refractive index , substrate (aquarium) , cell adhesion , plasmon , microscopy , adhesion , optics , microscope , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , biomedical engineering , medicine , oceanography , physics , composite material , geology
Cell adhesion is a crucial biological and biomedical parameter defining cell differentiation, cell migration, cell survival, and state of disease. Because of its importance in cellular function, several tools have been developed in order to monitor cell adhesion in response to various biochemical and mechanical cues. However, there remains a need to monitor cell adhesion and cell-substrate separation with a method that allows real-time measurements on accessible equipment. In this article, we present a method to monitor cell-substrate separation at the single cell level using a plasmonic extraordinary optical transmission substrate, which has a high sensitivity to refractive index changes at the metal-dielectric interface. We show how refractive index changes can be detected using intensity peaks in color channel histograms from RGB images taken of the device surface with a brightfield microscope. This allows mapping of the nonuniform refractive index pattern of a single cell cultured on the plasmonic substrate and therefore high-throughput detection of cell-substrate adhesion with observations in real time.