Imaging live cell in micro-liquid enclosure by X-ray laser diffraction

Emerging X-ray free-electron lasers with femtosecond pulse duration enable single-shot snapshot imaging almost free from sample damage by outrunning major radiation damage processes. In bioimaging, it is essential to keep the sample close to its natural state. Conventional high-resolution imaging, h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2014-01, Vol.5 (1), p.3052-3052, Article 3052
Main Authors: Kimura, Takashi, Joti, Yasumasa, Shibuya, Akemi, Song, Changyong, Kim, Sangsoo, Tono, Kensuke, Yabashi, Makina, Tamakoshi, Masatada, Moriya, Toshiyuki, Oshima, Tairo, Ishikawa, Tetsuya, Bessho, Yoshitaka, Nishino, Yoshinori
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/624/1020/1087
639/624/400/1106
639/766/747
Actinobacteria - cytology
Animals
Experiments
Humanities and Social Sciences
Imaging, Three-Dimensional - methods
Lasers
Life sciences
Microscopy
multidisciplinary
Radiation
Scattering, Radiation
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Semiconductors
Silicon nitride
X-Ray Diffraction - methods
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Summary:Emerging X-ray free-electron lasers with femtosecond pulse duration enable single-shot snapshot imaging almost free from sample damage by outrunning major radiation damage processes. In bioimaging, it is essential to keep the sample close to its natural state. Conventional high-resolution imaging, however, suffers from severe radiation damage that hinders live cell imaging. Here we present a method for capturing snapshots of live cells kept in a micro-liquid enclosure array by X-ray laser diffraction. We place living Microbacterium lacticum cells in an enclosure array and successively expose each enclosure to a single X-ray laser pulse from the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact Free-Electron Laser. The enclosure itself works as a guard slit and allows us to record a coherent diffraction pattern from a weakly-scattering submicrometre-sized cell with a clear fringe extending up to a 28-nm full-period resolution. The reconstructed image reveals living whole-cell structures without any staining, which helps advance understanding of intracellular phenomena. Live cell imaging at high resolution is very challenging because cells die upon prolonged radiation exposure. Kimura et al. overcome this problem by using pulsed coherent X-ray diffraction to image live microbacterium in a nanofabricated liquid enclosure at resolution far exceeding optical methods.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/ncomms4052