Abstract
Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) is a technique to visualize the fluorescence lifetime in cells. The fluorescence lifetime is the time that fluorophores remain at the excitation state before returning to the ground state. The lifetime is affected by various environmental changes, such as FRET, pH, metal ion concentration, and reactive oxygen species. Although FLIM is a very powerful method to be able to analyze the changes in the fluorophore state independently from fluorescence intensity, the application is mostly limited to FRET measurement, and the method itself has not yet gained so much popularity in Japan because of its expensive setup.
We have been trying to develop new FLIM method to analyze intracellular microenvironment using various fluorescence indicators and fluorescent proteins. These data will be a basis of future research on the intracellular dynamics during development or under various environmental stresses.
