Rhombic organization of microvilli domains found in a cell model of the human intestine
Fig 5
AFM images of the rhombic lattice arrangement of microvilli—AC mode.
Series of the same area of Caco-2 cells at different magnifications. (A) Overview of Caco-2 cells recorded with 1024 data point per scan line. At this image size the amplitude set point must be decreased to image the whole range in z of 1.5 μm. This leads to adhesion of the tip at some areas. (B) This resolution can detect highly and less ordered arrangements of microvilli. (C) With a lateral resolution of 6–7 nm/px the lattice arrangement can clearly be identified. Presented are 0 and 90 degree images of the same area (scan direction labelled with light grey arrow) and their Fourier transforms. For better comparison the left Fourier image is rotated as marked by the white arrow. (D) At the highest magnification of 2.9 nm/px the intermicrovillar links are visible in detail. A repeated scan is presented to demonstrate image stability. Furthermore the Fourier transform at this level yields to the presentation of harmonic components in the Fourier transformation.