[20p-C301-1~17] 3.3 Biomedical optics (formerly 3.4)

▲ [20p-C301-11] Probing Methionine Uptake in Live Cells and Tissue by Deuterium Labelling and Stimulated Raman Scattering

〇Spencer John Spratt¹, Kenichi Oguchi¹, Hina Kosakamoto², Fumiaki Obata², Yasuyuki Ozeki¹ (1.Tokyo Univ., 2.RIKEN BDR)

Keywords:stimulated Raman scattering, deuterium labelling, live cells and tissue

The small biomolecule methionine (Met) is a fundamental amino acid required for a vast range of biological processes such as protein synthesis, cancer metabolism, and epigenetics. However, it is difficult to visualize the subcellular distribution of small biomolecules including Met in a minimally invasive manner. Recently, we demonstrated stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) imaging [1] of cellular uptake of deuterated methionine (d₈-Met) in live HeLa cells [2]. By careful image analysis with background subtraction, we succeeded in the SRS imaging of cellular uptake of d₈-Met with a much greater signal intensity than homopropargylglycine (Hpg), the previously used alkyne-labeled Met analogue, even though their solutions show similar SRS signal intensities. We took this as a possible reflection of the increased and minimally invasive uptake kinetics of d₈-Met compared with Hpg. Here, we expand further upon this method introducing investigations in live tissue from the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. We show that d₈-Met is incorporated into tissue systemically from simply feeding larvae and thus paving the way for studies of cells and tissue from Drosophila. We anticipate that d₈-Met and other deuterated biomolecules will be useful for investigating metabolic processes with subcellular resolution.