Single cell research is essential for understanding cell heterogeneity, cell differentiation, and carcinogenesis, among other important cellular processes. New techniques for intracellular pH monitoring are urgently needed to gain new insights into single cell responses to external stimuli. In this study, fiber-optic reflection-based pH micro (μ)-probes (tip diameter: 500 nm - 3,000 nm) were designed and fabricated using a novel hexagonal 1-in-6 fiber configuration. An organic-modified silicate (OrMoSils) sol-gel doped with a pH sensitive dye, 2',7'-bis-(2-carboxyethyl)-5-(and-6)-carboxyfluorescein (BCECF), were coated onto the probe sensing tip for pH detection. These probes enabled neutral pH monitoring and quasi-real-time data acquisition (response time: 20±5 seconds). The fluorescence signals of the newly developed probes were found to correlate linearly with pH (R2 = 0.9869 when coupling laser power was at 8.2 mW) within a biologically relevant pH range (6.18 - 7.80). The pH resolution was 0.038 pH unit. The miniaturized probes were validated in single human lung cancer A549 cells to demonstrate applicability in single cell experiments. In summary, novel pH μ-probes with excellent resolution and response times within a biologically relevant pH range were developed and they can be used for measuring pH changes in single cells.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 11 July 2015.
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#13,207,948
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Outputs from Analytical Chemistry
#17,696
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Outputs of similar age
#119,680
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Outputs of similar age from Analytical Chemistry
#134
of 300 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,816,807 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 41st percentile – i.e., 41% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 26,459 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.7. This one is in the 32nd percentile – i.e., 32% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 300 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its contemporaries.
