A comparison study of microarrays by fluorescence imaging and surface plasmon resonance imaging

Abstract

In the past decade the analysis of microarrays which are rich in biology information has generated considerable interest. One of the conventional techniques in this area is to detect the biomolecules labeled with fluorescence agents. In recent years, the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging plays an important role in the detection of microarrays. The intensity of fluorescence signal acquired from fluorescence imaging is proportional to the amount of biomolecules, while the refractive index obtained from SPR imaging is relative to the concentration of sample, a comparison study of microarrays by these two detection techniques may be of great value. We develop a quasi-confocal parallel scan fluorescence imaging system which has only one moving part and can produce wide-field confocal images. The bacterial 16s rDNA universal primer labeled with CY5 fluorescence agents are used as probes and prepared as a microarray. The DNA-array is detected by both the quasi-confocal parallel scan fluorescence imaging system and the parallel scan spectral SPR imaging system. The results from these two imaging systems were compared and discussed in resolving power, homogeneity, etc. The refractive index information from the SPR imaging system and the fluorescence intensity information from the fluorescence imaging system are linked by bio-array concentration. The measured results can be inter-referred for bio-array studies.