There are very few techniques to reconstruct the shape of a cell at nanometric resolution, and those that exist are almost exclusively based on fluorescence, implying limitations due to staining constraints and artifacts. Reflection interference contrast microscopy (RICM), a label-free technique, permits the measurement of nanometric distances between refractive objects. However, its quantitative application to cells has been largely limited due to the complex interferometric pattern caused by multiple reflections on internal or thin structures like lamellipodia. Here we introduce 3D reflection interference contrast nanoscopy, 3D-RICN, which combines information from multiple illumination wavelengths and aperture angles to characterize the lamellipodial region of an adherent cell in terms of its distance from the surface and its thickness. We validate this new method by comparing data obtained on fixed cells imaged with atomic force microscopy and quantitative phase imaging. We show that as expected, cells adhering to micropatterns exhibit a radial symmetry for the lamellipodial thickness. We demonstrate that the substrate-lamellipod distance may be as high as 100 nm. We also show how the method applies to living cells, opening the way for label-free dynamical study of cell structures with nanometric resolution.
Keywords: Super-resolution; cell membrane topography; cell surface imaging; interference imaging; label-free imaging; lamellipodium.