Simultaneous analysis of multiple fluorescence decay curves by Laplace transforms. Deconvolution with reference or excitation profiles.

The properties and potentials of the noniterative Laplace deconvolution (LAP2) (M. Ameloot and H. Hendrickx, Biophys. J. 44 (1983) 27) are further investigated. It is shown that LAP2 is exact and that no extrapolations have to be calculated or assumed for the data measured in the actual time window if the impulse response function of the investigated system can be described by a sum of exponentials. The formulas for the LAP2 deconvolution against the measured decay of a reference compound instead of the recorded excitation profile are derived. The procedure for the simultaneous analysis of multiple fluorescence decay curves by LAP2 is described in detail. This global analysis allows one to link any decay parameter, is fast and compares favorably with the nonlinear least-squares iterative reconvolution methods. Because of its short computation time the global analysis by LAP2 provides an efficient way to analyze the fluorescence decay surface in terms of decay associated spectra.