Fig. 1

Variations of N2a cell membrane roughness under the treatment of Taxol. a Bright-field reflection image and the topography of N2a cells measured by NIWOP. Data was recorded without (control) or with the treatment of 10 μM Taxol. In each condition, the regions marked by the white square in the bright field images are displayed in the membrane topography. b SEM images of the N2a cells. The samples were measured after the treatment for 4 h. The membrane surfaces in the yellow squares show significant difference. c Statistics of N2a cell membrane roughness. The blue bars are measured before the treatment and the red bars are measured after 4 h of treatment. The cell number for the control and treatment group is 24 and 26, respectively. Data show the mean ± standard deviation. ***, p < 0.005 (Student’s t test)