The field of intracellular ion concentration measurement expanded greatly in the 1980's due primarily to the development by Roger Tsien of ratiometric fluorescence dyes. These dyes have many applications, and in particular they make possible to image ion concentrations: to produce maps of the ion concentration within living cells. Ion imagers comprise a fluorescence microscope, an imaging light detector such as a video camera, and a computer system to process the fluorescence signal and display the map of ion concentration.Ion imaging can be used for two distinct purposes. In the first, the imager looks at a field of cells, measuring the mean ion concentration in each cell of the many in the field of view. One can then, for instance, challenge the cells with an agonist and examine the response of each individual cell. Ion imagers are not necessary for this sort of experiment: one can instead use a system that measures the mean ion concentration in a just one cell at any one time. However, they are very much more convenient.
