Development of a soft X-ray microscope for direct observation of inner structures of live cells

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

We have developed a laser-plasma soft X-ray microscope combining an intense short pulsed soft X-ray source to a contact microscopy irradiating the soft X-rays onto cells directly cultivated on an X-ray photo resist and succeeded to observe inner structures of living cells directly. Using a fluorescent microscope with the soft X-ray microscope to observe the same cells at the same time, accurate identification and high resolved observation of cellular organelles have been achieved. Using the laser-plasma soft X-ray microscope inner structure of Leydig cells of mouse testis and structural deformation of apoptotic HeLa S3 nuclei have been observed. Immune cells of mouses have been observed and important structural change at the activation of immune function was found. We have found several important features by observing live cells which were unable by ordinal microscopes.