Visualizing intracellular nanostructures of living cells by nanoendoscopy-AFM

Performing endoscopy on a living cell

30 June 2022

Imaging nanostructures inside living cells has been realized by using a nanoprobe attached to an atomic force microscope.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful method for directly imaging the biomolecular processes of cells without the need to label biomolecules of interest. However, the method requires that the contents of cells had to either be extracted or reconstructed on a flat surface.

Now, researchers from Kanazawa University in Japan and their co-workers have designed a long nanoprobe that enables AFM to be used like an endoscope inside a living cell.

By scanning the nanoprobe, the researchers were able to build up 3D images of the insides of cells. Furthermore, by using cervical cancer cells, they demonstrated that the nanoprobe doesn’t cause excessive damage to cells.

The team anticipates that the technique will greatly expand the range of structures that can be observed inside living cells.

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References

1. Science Advances 7, eabj4990 (2021). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abj4990