Second harmonic generation microscopy of muscle cell morphology and dynamics

Abstract

Microscopy in combination with contrast-increasing dyes allows the visualization and analysis of organs, tissues, and various cells. Because of their better resolution, the development of confocal and laser microscopes enables the investigations of cell components, which are labeled with fluorescent dyes. The imaging of living cells on subcellular level (also in vivo) needs a labeling by gene transfection of GFP or similar labeled proteins. We present a method for visualization of cell structure in skeletal and heart muscle by label-free Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) microscopy and describe analytic methods for quantitative measurements of morphology and dynamics in skeletal muscle fibers.