Label-free 3D microscopy method furthers malaria research

Aug. 15, 2019
Three studies demonstrate how a label-free 3D microscopy technique enables researchers to observe morphological and chemical alterations of host cells due to the malaria parasite infection.

Three studies demonstrate how label-free, 3D imaging using holotomography (HT) microscopy enables researchers to observe morphological and chemical alterations of host cells due to the malaria parasite infection without any transfection or dye staining. This powerful microscope allows parasites to be easily and quickly detected and monitored within the host cells, and permits the intricacies of parasite infection mechanisms and the host cell/parasite life cycle to be studied.

Using a Tomocube HT microscope from Tomocube (Daejeon, South Korea), Y. K. Park et al. showed that the plasma membrane of an infected red blood cell (RBC) loses its deformability and becomes stiffer due to proteins secreted by the parasite altering the membrane cortex structure.1 Although micropipette aspiration, optical tweezers, and cell filtration have been used to try to probe the cell membrane, they require highly complex instrumentation and also exert significant external forces on the cells, making it difficult to distinguish the intrinsic membrane properties.

In further studies, K. Kim et al. also used the Tomocube HT microscope to perform precise, 3D RI measurements of hemoglobin digestion by the malaria parasites.2 The team's 3D refractive index (RI) tomograms of malaria-infected RBCs also clearly reveal the shapes of various vacuoles as well as hemozoin, which can also be quantified.

"Our holotomography microscope provides 3D localization of almost all sub-100 μm parasites without any preparation or staining, discriminating based on the high-RI value of their plasma membrane structure and cytoplasmic contents," says Aubrey Lambert, chief marketing officer at Tomocube. "Also, a recently published study by Kim and his co-workers using the Tomocube HT-2H microscope showed 3D localization of intact Toxoplasma gondii infecting human epithelial and dendritic cells, clearly demonstrating that the integration of holotomography and fluorescence microscopy benefits the characterization of the molecular mechanism of specific genes or proteins in various parasites."3

Researchers have traditionally been restricted to detection methods that impose severe limitations, such as light microscopy or fluorescence microscopy. Although staining has been used to observe parasites in host cells, most dyes are only applicable for staining of fixed cells or tissue and not suited to detecting the dynamics of parasites living in the host cell. Phase contrast microscopy or DIC imaging may allow parasites to be observed, but only in two dimensions. Meanwhile, fluorescence microscopy requires extensive, invasive pre-treatment of the sample and is costly, time-consuming, and technically challenging.

Holotomography (HT) uses laser interferometry to measure the 3D RI distribution within a specimen. HT is suitable for observing small transparent objects, such as biological cells and their intracellular organelles, rapidly and quantitatively for analysis of an individual cell by calculating cellular dry mass, surface area, volume, etc.

REFERENCES

1. Y. K. Park et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 105, 13730-13735 (2008).

2. K. Kim et al., J. Biomed. Opt. (2014); doi:19:011005-011012.

3. Y. S. Kim et al., Yale J. Biol. Med. (2018).

For more information, please visit tomocube.com.

About the Author

BioOptics World Editors

We edited the content of this article, which was contributed by outside sources, to fit our style and substance requirements. (Editor’s Note: BioOptics World has folded as a brand and is now part of Laser Focus World, effective in 2022.)

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