In situ observation of cellular organelles with a contact X-ray microscope

Kado, Masataka; Kishimoto, Maki; Tamotsu, Satoshi*; Yasuda, Keiko*; Shinohara, Kunio*

A contact X-ray microscope coupled with a high intense laser plasma soft X-ray source has been developed and in situ observations of cellular organelles have been conducted. The soft X-ray source were generated by a high power laser pulse onto a thin foiled gold target at the photon numbers of 1.310 photons/sr to be able to capture an image of live wet biological cells. The cells were cultured on PMMA photoresists that were formed on transparent glass plates to make optical microscope observation possible. The cells were observed by both of optical microscope and soft X-ray microscope. The obtained soft X-ray images were directly compared with corresponding fluorescent optical images. Cellular organelles such as mitochondria and cytoskeleton in the soft X-ray images were identified referencing the information obtained from the fluorescent images.