Label-free identification of macrophage phenotype by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy

Alba Alfonso-García; Tim D. Smith; Rupsa Datta; Thuy U. Luu; Enrico Gratton; Eric  O. Potma; Wendy F. Liu

doi:10.1117/1.JBO.21.4.046005

18 April 2016 Label-free identification of macrophage phenotype by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy

Alba Alfonso-García, Tim D. Smith, Rupsa Datta, Thuy U. Luu, Enrico Gratton, Eric O. Potma, Wendy F. Liu

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Journal of Biomedical Optics, Vol. 21, Issue 4, 046005 (April 2016). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.21.4.046005

Abstract

Macrophages adopt a variety of phenotypes that are a reflection of the many functions they perform as part of the immune system. In particular, metabolism is a phenotypic trait that differs between classically activated, proinflammatory macrophages, and alternatively activated, prohealing macrophages. Inflammatory macrophages have a metabolism based on glycolysis while alternatively activated macrophages generally rely on oxidative phosphorylation to generate chemical energy. We employ this shift in metabolism as an endogenous marker to identify the phenotype of individual macrophages via live-cell fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). We demonstrate that polarized macrophages can be readily discriminated with the aid of a phasor approach to FLIM, which provides a fast and model-free method for analyzing fluorescence lifetime images.

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Alba Alfonso-García, Tim D. Smith, Rupsa Datta, Thuy U. Luu, Enrico Gratton, Eric O. Potma, and Wendy F. Liu "Label-free identification of macrophage phenotype by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy," Journal of Biomedical Optics 21(4), 046005 (18 April 2016). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.21.4.046005

Published: 18 April 2016

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