Imaging of living cultured cells of an epithelial nature by atomic force microscopy

The present paper describes the applicability of atomic force microscopy (A FM) to the observation of living cultured cells of an epithelial nature (hu man esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cells, or C7 subclone of KESC2 cells ) in a culture medium. For this purpose, we made a fluid chamber system whi ch allows a constant-speed perfusion of fluid at a regulated temperature in the chamber. Using this system, AFM images of living cells were successful ly obtained for over one hour at time intervals of 2-4 min during continuou s perfusion of the fresh culture medium. A series of these AFM images prove d useful for examining the movements of cellular processes in relation to s ubcellular cytoskeletal elements. Time-lapse movie records produced by sequ ential AFM images further verify the reality of the cellular dynamics.