Transient State Fluorescence Microscopy - method development and biological applications Exploiting the dark states of fluorophores to measure oxygen concentrations, redox state, Förster resonance energy transfer and membrane viscosity

Abstract: Due to their long lifetime, triplet, redox and other transient states of fluorophores are highly sensitive to the micro-environment. Imaging their spatial distribution in biological samples can therefore help answer interesting questions about the metabolism, molecular interactions and dynamics in living cells. However, as these states are at best weakly luminescent, they have up to now only been used to a limited extent in life sciences. In Transient State (TRAST) imaging, the characteristic build up of transient states is instead monitored via fluorescence, as the excitation is modulated. When the illumination pulse width is step-wise increased, transient states are progressively populated. The resulting depletion of the singlet excited state can be monitored via time-averaged fluorescence. This fluorescence decay is characteristic for the transient state kinetics of the fluorophore in a given environment. Traditional fluorescence parameters can only be influenced within the lifetime of the fluorophore. In contrast, TRAST imaging can monitor photo-induced states with 103? 106 times longer lifetimes and is therefore far more sensitive to sparse quencher molecules, such as dissolved oxygen. Transient state kinetics can also be studied using Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS). In contrast to FCS, transient state imaging circumvents the need of time resolution in the fluorescence detection, thereby allowing simultaneous readout over a large number of pixels using a camera. It can also be applied over a broader range of concentrations and does not require a strong fluorescence brightness of the sample molecules. In this thesis, TRAST imaging has been applied in a total internal reflection fluorescence microscope to monitor the redox reactions of fluorescent dyes in solution. Moreover, TRAST imaging was established for measuring lipid microfluidity in biomembranes, and for a new concept to measure molecular distances in combination with Förster Resonance Energy Transfer. The sensitivity of the fluorophore triplet state to oxygen has been exploited in a wide-field microscope to monitor oxygen consumption during the contraction of smooth muscle cells and the modulation of the oxygen consumption of cancer cells by metabolite availability. High triplet yield fluorophores such as Eosin Y are introduced in order to reduce irradiance intensity requirements as reported in earlier TRAST papers. Irradiance requirements and axial resolution have further been reduced using a single plane illumination microscope.