Endothelial-like nitric oxide synthase immunolocalization by using gold nanoparticles and dyes

Immunofluorescence is a biological technique that allows displaying the localization of the target molecule through a fluorescent microscope. We used a combination of gold nanoparticles and the fluorescein isothiocianate, FITC, as optical contrast agents for laser scanning confocal microscopy imaging to localize the endothelial-like nitric oxide synthase in skeletal muscle cells in a three-dimensional tissue phantom at the depth of 4 mu m. The FITC detected fluorescence intensity from gold-nanoparticles-labelled cells was brighter than the emission intensity from unlabelled cells.