Raster image correlation spectroscopy in live cells

Raster image correlation spectroscopy (RICS) is a noninvasive technique to detect and quantify events in a live cell, including concentration of molecules and diffusion coefficients of molecules; in addition, by measuring changes in diffusion coefficients, RICS can indirectly detect binding. Any specimen containing fluorophores that can be imaged with a laser scanning microscope can be analyzed using RICS. There are other techniques to measure diffusion coefficients and binding; however, RICS fills a unique niche. It provides spatial information and can be performed in live cells using a conventional confocal microscope. It can measure a range of diffusion coefficients that is not accessible with any other single optical correlation-based technique. In this article we describe a protocol to obtain raster scanned images with an Olympus FluoView FV1000 confocal laser scanning microscope using Olympus FluoView software to acquire data and SimFCS software to perform RICS analysis. Each RICS measurement takes several minutes. The entire procedure can be completed in similar to 2 h. This procedure includes focal volume calibration using a solution of fluorophores with a known diffusion coefficient and measurement of the diffusion coefficients of cytosolic enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and EGFP-paxillin.