Scanning capillary microscopy in the study of tumor and blood cells

Scanning ion-conductance microscopy or scanning capillary microscopy (SICM) is one of the methods of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) based on the use of nanocapillaries. The main advantages of SICM over other SPM methods are a non–violent action on an object under study in the course of measurements and a possibility to conduct studies in the natural environment (in liquid). Therefore, this method has become widely used in biological and medical research. Today SICM can be used for multiparametric analysis of the object’s surface and processes occurring near it. In SICM bioapplications the most relevant areas of work are studies of living systems with a wide time resolution (from minutes to days) and development of methods for targeted agent delivery to the surface of the subject in order to study its response to external influences. This paper presents the results of a study of the morphology of human carcinoma cells and the life cycle of human blood cells using ion-conductance microscopy. SICM allows not only the visualization in a three-dimensional scale, but also provides an opportunity to process a number of experimental data for diagnostic purposes.