Abstract
Optical Scatter Imaging (OSI) was recently developed in our laboratory to study subcellular morphological changes in viable cells. The process utilizes Fourier filtering and the ratio of wide-to-narrow angle scatter intensity (OSIR) to detect alterations in the size of particles with wavelength-scale dimensions. In the present study, we utilize OSI to track subcellular changes during programmed cell death. OSI showed an average 21% decrease in OSIR. The OSIR initial was 183.8/spl plusmn/7.2 and the OSIR final was 145.9/spl plusmn/4.3, p<0.001, n=57 (mean /spl plusmn/95% confidence interval of the mean) upon induction of cell death by 1 /spl mu/M of the kinase inhibitor staurosporine. This decrease was not observed in cells that over expressed Bcl-x, an antiapoptotic protein localized on the mitochondria. Combining OSI with genetic manipulations provides a novel approach and tool, with which to study apoptosis, a fundamental biological process.