Structural study of cellular organelles with a laser-plasma soft X-ray microscope

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

Laser plasma soft X-ray microscope, which is a combination of a laser plasma soft X-ray source and a contact type soft X-ray microscope, has been developed. Since the laser plasma soft X-ray sources have advantages of high brightness and short pulse duration, they can avoid radiation damage and motion blur affect on the images during acquisition of the soft X-ray images of live biological specimens. Hybrid microscopy, which was combination of a soft X-ray microscope and a fluorescence microscope, enabled the soft X-ray microscopy to identify cellular organelles precisely. Observing the Leydig cells, a single mitochondrion in the live biological cell was imaged for the first time and detailed structure of it was obtained.