The interpretation of interferencereflection images of spread cells: Significant contributions from thin peripheral cytoplasm

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Abstract
In interference-reflection microscopy, used for investigating cell-substratum separation, it is commonly believed that cytoplasmic thickness can be ignored, provided a high illuminating numerical aperture (INA) is used. It is shown here that even when a maximal INA is used, cytoplasmic lamellae of 1 μm or less can be major determinants of the image. The leading lamella of spreading tissue cells and large peripheral areas of Dictyostelium discoideum amoebae on adhesive substrata are less than 1 μm thick and it is argued that hitherto unexplained features of the interference images of these cells may be interpreted in terms of the theory used here.