TIRF Microscopy-Based Visualization of Phagosome Formation and Closure

For non-covalent fixation of the SRBCs, pour 2 milliliters of the IgG-opsonized cells into each of the poly-lysine-coated dishes, and centrifuge the samples in a swinging rotor centrifuge. Discard the supernatants, and wash the particles one time with 2 milliliters of PBS plus 10% BSA.

Then, incubate the particles with 2 milliliters of fresh PBS plus 10% BSA for 30 minutes at room temperature, followed by three washes with 2 milliliters of PBS. After the last wash, replace the PBS with 2 milliliters of 37 degrees Celsius serum-free microscopy medium.

Place an SRBC-coded dish onto the microscope stage. Then, scrape the transfected cells of interest from the bottom of the culture dish and pipette the cells a few times to achieve a single-cell suspension. Add the transfected cells to the SRBC-coated dish.

Start the live acquisition software. Find a cell that expresses the fluorescently tagged proteins and adjust the position of the dish so that a cell of interest is in the middle of the field. Acquire 500 images at different angles from 0 to 5 degrees at 0.01-degree increments at one excitation wavelength.

To determine the critical angle for the incident light to be totally reflected at the glass-medium interface and generate an evanescent wave, open the image sequence in the appropriate imaging software. Select a region of interest in the cell with uniform fluorescence.

Then, under the Image tab, select Stacks and plot Z-axis profile. To plot the Z-axis profile mean fluorescence intensity measured in the region of interest with the function of the angles on the X-axis. Any angle value on the x-axis superior to the critical angle can then be used during the microscopy session to obtain a TIRF signal.