Development of a Fiber-Optic Plate Microscope System and Visualization of Cells Stained with Fluorescent Dyes

A new type of video-microscope system combined with a fiber-optic plate processed in the shape of a needle has been developed; the obtained fluorescence images were analyzed. The fiber-optic plate comprises thousands of optical fibers 3 μm in diameter, a sufficient size for viewing a single cell. Images at areas adjacent to the end of the fiber-optic plate are transmitted into an objective and detected with a video camera. They are then digitized for storage in an image processor. Using this system and fluorometric methods, cultured cells can be sufficiently visualized and any spatiotemporal change in the intracellular free calcium concentration can be measured. These specifications suggest that the activity and morphology of cells in internal parts of a living animal can be measured at the single-cell level by inserting a fiber-optic plate into the target organ