Measurement of nanoscale three-dimensional diffusion in the interior of living cells by STED-FCS

Nat Commun. 2017 Jul 6;8(1):65. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00117-2.

Abstract

The observation of molecular diffusion at different spatial scales, and in particular below the optical diffraction limit (<200 nm), can reveal details of the subcellular topology and its functional organization. Stimulated-emission depletion microscopy (STED) has been previously combined with fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to investigate nanoscale diffusion (STED-FCS). However, stimulated-emission depletion fluorescence correlation spectroscopy has only been used successfully to reveal functional organization in two-dimensional space, such as the plasma membrane, while, an efficient implementation for measurements in three-dimensional space, such as the cellular interior, is still lacking. Here we integrate the STED-FCS method with two analytical approaches, the recent separation of photons by lifetime tuning and the fluorescence lifetime correlation spectroscopy, to simultaneously probe diffusion in three dimensions at different sub-diffraction scales. We demonstrate that this method efficiently provides measurement of the diffusion of EGFP at spatial scales tunable from the diffraction size down to ∼80 nm in the cytoplasm of living cells.The measurement of molecular diffusion at sub-diffraction scales has been achieved in 2D space using STED-FCS, but an implementation for 3D diffusion is lacking. Here the authors present an analytical approach to probe diffusion in 3D space using STED-FCS and measure the diffusion of EGFP at different spatial scales.

MeSH terms

  • Diffusion*
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins*
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence*
  • Molecular Imaging*
  • Spectrometry, Fluorescence*

Substances

  • enhanced green fluorescent protein
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins