A quantitative analysis of the intracellular transport of quantum dot-peptide in live cells using total internal reflection and confocal microscopy

Abstract

For investigatoin of intracellular protein interactions, quantum dots are widely used for fluorescent live cell imaging such as total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy and confocal microscopy. In this paper, we performed a quantitative analysis based on fluorescent intensity. For the measurement, A431 cell lines are imaged live with quantum dots using TIRF microscopy. The distribution of quantum dots is affected by a TATHA2 peptide sequence in live cells. This paper also presents the location change of quantum dots due to a nuclear localization signal in A431 cell lines. Confocal microscopy was used to confirm the relation with fluorescent intensity and quantum dot concentration in live cells.