# Na-Ag Ion-Exchanged Glass Substrates for Plasmon-Enhanced Fluorescence Imaging of Neutrophils

## TL;DR

This paper shows that using silver nanoparticle substrates can greatly enhance the fluorescence signal when imaging neutrophils stained with a specific dye.

## Contribution

The study introduces Na+-Ag+ ion-exchanged glass substrates that significantly enhance fluorescence for neutrophil imaging.

## Key findings

- Fluorescence intensity increased over 10 times with silver nanoparticle substrates.
- Enhancement depends on nanoparticle size, surface density, and staining procedure.
- Gold and silver nanoparticles with sizes 12-250 nm were tested for plasmonic effects.

## Abstract

Here, we study the fluorescence response of neutrophils stained with the wheat germ agglutinin Alexa Fluor 594 dye when the cells are placed on plasmonic nanoparticle substrates. Specifically, we focused on gold and silver nanoparticles with particle sizes ranging from 12 to 250 nm. It was demonstrated that the intensity of fluorescence can be increased by more than 10 times when using substrates with silver nanoparticles formed by Na+-Ag+ ion exchange in glass. The fluorescence enhancement depends significantly on both the size and surface density of the silver nanoparticles and the membrane staining procedure.