ELECTRONIC LIGHT-MICROSCOPY COMBINED WITH SPECTROPHOTOMETRY ALLOWS REAL-TIME ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURES AT THE SUBCELLULAR LEVEL

A combination of microscopy (video-enhanced contrast microscopy) and s pectrophotometry (which analyses online the spectra from the microscop ic picture) is presented. This set-up allows the in vivo microscopic o bservation of cellular and subcellular structures as well as simultane ous online determination of cellular chromophores. To test our equipme nt we measured spectra of isolated red blood cells and NG 108-15 cells and correlated these spectra with the corresponding video-enhanced mi croscopic picture. By labelling specific cell organelles of astrocytes with in vivo fluorescent dyes, we visualized mitochondria and capture d the corresponding spectra.