Live-cell imaging study of mitochondrial morphology in mammalian cells irradiated

Kanari, Yukiko; Noguchi, Miho; Kaminaga, Kiichi; Sakamoto, Yuka; Yokoya, Akinari

In this study, we report a new approach of tracing the mitochondrial morphological change of the cells exposed to high LET radiation using a live-cell imaging technique. We used the NMuMG (Normal murine mammary gland)-FUCCI2 cell line. Using the FUCCI2 expressing cells, we can observe red fluorescence in the nuclei of G1 phase cells and green fluorescence in the nuclei of S/G2/M phase cells. We labeled mitochondria by Mitotracker Red. Kinetics of mitochondrial morphology was analyzed by the live-cell imaging technique using a fluorescence microscope. Mitochondrial images were captured for 4 days after irradiation. In a preliminary study, we found that X-ray irradiation of cells caused mitochondrial fragmentation, and proportion of cell population with fragmented mitochondria increased with increasing dose and with time after irradiation. It is demonstrated that the method proposed in this study works successively to trace cytoplasmic effects by high LET irradiation.