Juan-Colás, José orcid.org/0000-0002-1031-915X, Hitchcock, Ian S orcid.org/0000-0001-7170-6703, Coles, Mark orcid.org/0000-0001-8079-9358 et al. (2 more authors) (2018) Quantifying single-cell secretion in real time using resonant hyperspectral imaging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. pp. 13204-13209. ISSN 1091-6490
Abstract
Cell communication is primarily regulated by secreted proteins, whose inhomogeneous secretion often indicates physiological disorder. Parallel monitoring of innate protein-secretion kinetics from individual cells is thus crucial to unravel systemic malfunctions. Here, we report a label-free, high-throughput method for parallel, in vitro, and real-time analysis of specific single-cell signaling using hyperspectral photonic crystal resonant technology. Heterogeneity in physiological thrombopoietin expression from individual HepG2 liver cells in response to platelet desialylation was quantified demonstrating how mapping real-time protein secretion can provide a simple, yet powerful approach for studying complex physiological systems regulating protein production at single-cell resolution.