Mie theory interpretations of light scattering from intact cells

We present a Mie theory-based analysis of angularly resolved light scattering from intact cells that involves the product of a particle size distribution ? and the scattering cross section ?. The analysis shows that the ability to size intracellular organelles depends strongly upon the assumed functional form of the particle size distribution; however, the product ?? extracts the dominant light scatterers regardless of this choice. We examine goniometer measurements from our own and another laboratory and find that this analysis reconciles seemingly conflicting results and confirms that mitochondrial-sized organelles dominate scattering from intact cells in the angular range 5°–90°.