Abstract

Fluorescence microscopy has been used effectively in medicine and the life sciences to extract information on biological specimens and tissues. Recently, this technique has become even more valuable and sensitive for studying important processes in a single cell or organelle, even in living situations.¹ However, the use of incoherent light sources for the excitation and fluorescence observation with the eye or a photograph accompany usually practical difficulties of quantitative measurement along with high spatial and temporal resolution. To overcome these problems, we have designed and developed a novel type of digitized fluorescence microscope system employing a laser for high radiant and narrowband excitation and an ultrahigh sensitive image sensor for quantitative measurement of the spatial distribution of fluorescence intensity across a cell based on the digital image processing technique.² The operational principle and some interesting results obtained for a single tumor cell are reported for the first time.

© 1984 Optical Society of America