Abstract
Evanescent light illumination was introduced into a multi-mode microscope to construct a new type of total internal reflection fluorescence microscope (TIRFM). This microscope, capable of TIRFM, high resolution video-enhanced differential interference contrast (DIC), epifluorescence, interference relfection (IR) imaging, was combined with an image acquisition system for time-lapse microscopy. For the understanding the integrin dynamics, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were stained with FITC labeled anti-CD29 (beta 1 subunit of integrin) and plated on a glass coverslip coated with fibronectin to visualize clustering processes of integrins in the living HUVECs. Dynamics of integrins in HUVECs were observed by total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM).
