WorldWideScience

Sample records for living cell studies

  1. Kinase Activity Studied in Living Cells Using an Immunoassay

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bavec, Aljos?a

    2014-01-01

    This laboratory exercise demonstrates the use of an immunoassay for studying kinase enzyme activity in living cells. The advantage over the classical method, in which students have to isolate the enzyme from cell material and measure its activity in vitro, is that enzyme activity is modulated and measured in living cells, providing a more…

  2. AFM review study on pox viruses and living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohnesorge, F M; Hörber, J K; Häberle, W; Czerny, C P; Smith, D P; Binnig, G

    1997-10-01

    Single living cells were studied in growth medium by atomic force microscopy at a high--down to one image frame per second--imaging rate over time periods of many hours, stably producing hundreds of consecutive scans with a lateral resolution of approximately 30-40 nm. The cell was held by a micropipette mounted onto the scanner-piezo as shown in Häberle, W., J. K. H. Hörber, and G. Binnig. 1991. Force microscopy on living cells. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B9:1210-0000. To initiate specific processes on the cell surface the cells had been infected with pox viruses as reported earlier and, most likely, the liberation of a progeny virion by the still-living cell was observed, hence confirming and supporting earlier results (Häberle, W., J. K. H. Hörber, F. Ohnesorge, D. P. E. Smith, and G. Binnig. 1992. In situ investigations of single living cells infected by viruses. Ultramicroscopy. 42-44:1161-0000; Hörber, J. K. H., W. Häberle, F. Ohnesorge, G. Binnig, H. G. Liebich, C. P. Czerny, H. Mahnel, and A. Mayr. 1992. Investigation of living cells in the nanometer regime with the atomic force microscope. Scanning Microscopy. 6:919-930). Furthermore, the pox viruses used were characterized separately by AFM in an aqueous environment down to the molecular level. Quasi-ordered structural details were resolved on a scale of a few nm where, however, image distortions and artifacts due to multiple tip effects are probably involved--just as in very high resolution (small dark spots in the light microscope, that we believed to be the regions in the cell plasma where viruses are assembled; this is known from the literature on electron microscopy on pox-infected cells and referred to there as "virus factories" (e.g., Moss, B. 1986. Replication of pox viruses. In Fundamental Virology, B. N. Fields and D. M. Knape, editors. Raven Press, New York. 637-655). Therefore, we assume that the cells stay alive during imaging, in our experience for approximately 30-45 h p.i.).

  3. Vital Autofluorescence: Application to the Study of Plant Living Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Victoria V. Roshchina

    2012-01-01

    approach to study the autofluorescence of plant living cells—from cell diagnostics up to modelling the cell-cell contacts and cell interactions with fluorescent biologically active substances. It bases on the direct observations of secretions released from allelopathic and medicinal species and the cell-donor interactions with cell-acceptors as biosensors (unicellular plant generative and vegetative microspores. Special attention was paid to the interactions with pigmented and fluorescing components of the secretions released by the cells-donors from plant species. Colored components of secretions are considered as histochemical dyes for the analysis of cellular mechanisms at the cell-cell contacts and modelling of cell-cell interactions. The fluorescence of plant biosensors was also recommended for the testing of natural plant excretions as medical drugs.

  4. Neutron scattering to study membrane systems: from lipid vesicles to living cells.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nickels, Jonathan D. [ORNL; Chatterjee, Sneha [ORNL; Stanley, Christopher B. [ORNL; Qian, Shuo [ORNL; Cheng, Xiaolin [ORNL; Myles, Dean A A [ORNL; Standaert, Robert F. [ORNL; Elkins, James G. [ORNL; Katsaras, John [ORNL

    2017-03-01

    The existence and role of lateral lipid organization in biological membranes has been studied and contested for more than 30 years. Lipid domains, or rafts, are hypothesized as scalable compartments in biological membranes, providing appropriate physical environments to their resident membrane proteins. This implies that lateral lipid organization is associated with a range of biological functions, such as protein co-localization, membrane trafficking, and cell signaling, to name just a few. Neutron scattering techniques have proven to be an excellent tool to investigate these structural features in model lipids, and more recently, in living cells. I will discuss our recent work using neutrons to probe the structure and mechanical properties in model lipid systems and our current efforts in using neutrons to probe the structure and organization of the bilayer in a living cell. These efforts in living cells have used genetic and biochemical strategies to generate a large neutron scattering contrast, making the membrane visible. I will present our results showing in vivo bilayer structure and discuss the outlook for this approach.

  5. Live-cell imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cole, Richard

    2014-01-01

    It would be hard to argue that live-cell imaging has not changed our view of biology. The past 10 years have seen an explosion of interest in imaging cellular processes, down to the molecular level. There are now many advanced techniques being applied to live cell imaging. However, cellular health is often under appreciated. For many researchers, if the cell at the end of the experiment has not gone into apoptosis or is blebbed beyond recognition, than all is well. This is simply incorrect. There are many factors that need to be considered when performing live-cell imaging in order to maintain cellular health such as: imaging modality, media, temperature, humidity, PH, osmolality, and photon dose. The wavelength of illuminating light, and the total photon dose that the cells are exposed to, comprise two of the most important and controllable parameters of live-cell imaging. The lowest photon dose that achieves a measureable metric for the experimental question should be used, not the dose that produces cover photo quality images. This is paramount to ensure that the cellular processes being investigated are in their in vitro state and not shifted to an alternate pathway due to environmental stress. The timing of the mitosis is an ideal canary in the gold mine, in that any stress induced from the imaging will result in the increased length of mitosis, thus providing a control model for the current imagining conditions.

  6. Polyvalent Display of Biomolecules on Live Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Peng; Zhao, Nan; Lai, Jinping; Coyne, James; Gaddes, Erin R; Wang, Yong

    2018-06-04

    Surface display of biomolecules on live cells offers new opportunities to treat human diseases and perform basic studies. Existing methods are primarily focused on monovalent functionalization, that is, the display of single biomolecules across the cell surface. Here we show that the surface of live cells can be functionalized to display polyvalent biomolecular structures through two-step reactions under physiological conditions. This polyvalent functionalization enables the cell surface to recognize the microenvironment one order of magnitude more effectively than with monovalent functionalization. Thus, polyvalent display of biomolecules on live cells holds great potential for various biological and biomedical applications. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  7. Quantification of nanowire uptake by live cells

    KAUST Repository

    Margineanu, Michael B.

    2015-05-01

    Nanostructures fabricated by different methods have become increasingly important for various applications at the cellular level. In order to understand how these nanostructures “behave” and for studying their internalization kinetics, several attempts have been made at tagging and investigating their interaction with living cells. In this study, magnetic iron nanowires with an iron oxide layer are coated with (3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES), and subsequently labeled with a fluorogenic pH-dependent dye pHrodo™ Red, covalently bound to the aminosilane surface. Time-lapse live imaging of human colon carcinoma HCT 116 cells interacting with the labeled iron nanowires is performed for 24 hours. As the pHrodo™ Red conjugated nanowires are non-fluorescent outside the cells but fluoresce brightly inside, internalized nanowires are distinguished from non-internalized ones and their behavior inside the cells can be tracked for the respective time length. A machine learning-based computational framework dedicated to automatic analysis of live cell imaging data, Cell Cognition, is adapted and used to classify cells with internalized and non-internalized nanowires and subsequently determine the uptake percentage by cells at different time points. An uptake of 85 % by HCT 116 cells is observed after 24 hours incubation at NW-to-cell ratios of 200. While the approach of using pHrodo™ Red for internalization studies is not novel in the literature, this study reports for the first time the utilization of a machine-learning based time-resolved automatic analysis pipeline for quantification of nanowire uptake by cells. This pipeline has also been used for comparison studies with nickel nanowires coated with APTES and labeled with pHrodo™ Red, and another cell line derived from the cervix carcinoma, HeLa. It has thus the potential to be used for studying the interaction of different types of nanostructures with potentially any live cell types.

  8. The spatio-temporal organization of DNA-repair: a live cell study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    D. Hoogstraten (Deborah)

    2003-01-01

    textabstractThe aim of the work outlined in this thesis is to gain more insight into the organization, dynamic properties and differential reaction kinetics of NER factors within living mammalian cell nuclei. To accomplish this, we made use of the green fluorescent protein technology to study TFIIH

  9. Live cell imaging of in vitro human trophoblast syncytialization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Rui; Dang, Yan-Li; Zheng, Ru; Li, Yue; Li, Weiwei; Lu, Xiaoyin; Wang, Li-Juan; Zhu, Cheng; Lin, Hai-Yan; Wang, Hongmei

    2014-06-01

    Human trophoblast syncytialization, a process of cell-cell fusion, is one of the most important yet least understood events during placental development. Investigating the fusion process in a placenta in vivo is very challenging given the complexity of this process. Application of primary cultured cytotrophoblast cells isolated from term placentas and BeWo cells derived from human choriocarcinoma formulates a biphasic strategy to achieve the mechanism of trophoblast cell fusion, as the former can spontaneously fuse to form the multinucleated syncytium and the latter is capable of fusing under the treatment of forskolin (FSK). Live-cell imaging is a powerful tool that is widely used to investigate many physiological or pathological processes in various animal models or humans; however, to our knowledge, the mechanism of trophoblast cell fusion has not been reported using a live- cell imaging manner. In this study, a live-cell imaging system was used to delineate the fusion process of primary term cytotrophoblast cells and BeWo cells. By using live staining with Hoechst 33342 or cytoplasmic dyes or by stably transfecting enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and DsRed2-Nuc reporter plasmids, we observed finger-like protrusions on the cell membranes of fusion partners before fusion and the exchange of cytoplasmic contents during fusion. In summary, this study provides the first video recording of the process of trophoblast syncytialization. Furthermore, the various live-cell imaging systems used in this study will help to yield molecular insights into the syncytialization process during placental development. © 2014 by the Society for the Study of Reproduction, Inc.

  10. Interactions between semiconductor nanowires and living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prinz, Christelle N

    2015-06-17

    Semiconductor nanowires are increasingly used for biological applications and their small dimensions make them a promising tool for sensing and manipulating cells with minimal perturbation. In order to interface cells with nanowires in a controlled fashion, it is essential to understand the interactions between nanowires and living cells. The present paper reviews current progress in the understanding of these interactions, with knowledge gathered from studies where living cells were interfaced with vertical nanowire arrays. The effect of nanowires on cells is reported in terms of viability, cell-nanowire interface morphology, cell behavior, changes in gene expression as well as cellular stress markers. Unexplored issues and unanswered questions are discussed.

  11. Recent advances in live cell imaging of hepatoma cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    Live cell imaging enables the study of dynamic processes of living cells in real time by use of suitable reporter proteins and the staining of specific cellular structures and/or organelles. With the availability of advanced optical devices and improved cell culture protocols it has become a rapidly growing research methodology. The success of this technique relies mainly on the selection of suitable reporter proteins, construction of recombinant plasmids possessing cell type specific promoters as well as reliable methods of gene transfer. This review aims to provide an overview of the recent developments in the field of marker proteins (bioluminescence and fluorescent) and methodologies (fluorescent resonance energy transfer, fluorescent recovery after photobleaching and proximity ligation assay) employed as to achieve an improved imaging of biological processes in hepatoma cells. Moreover, different expression systems of marker proteins and the modes of gene transfer are discussed with emphasis on the study of lipid droplet formation in hepatocytes as an example. PMID:25005127

  12. Clonal expansion under the microscope: studying lymphocyte activation and differentiation using live-cell imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polonsky, Michal; Chain, Benjamin; Friedman, Nir

    2016-03-01

    Clonal expansion of lymphocytes is a hallmark of vertebrate adaptive immunity. A small number of precursor cells that recognize a specific antigen proliferate into expanded clones, differentiate and acquire various effector and memory phenotypes, which promote effective immune responses. Recent studies establish a large degree of heterogeneity in the level of expansion and in cell state between and within expanding clones. Studying these processes in vivo, while providing insightful information on the level of heterogeneity, is challenging due to the complex microenvironment and the inability to continuously track individual cells over extended periods of time. Live cell imaging of ex vivo cultures within micro fabricated arrays provides an attractive methodology for studying clonal expansion. These experiments facilitate continuous acquisition of a large number of parameters on cell number, proliferation, death and differentiation state, with single-cell resolution on thousands of expanding clones that grow within controlled environments. Such data can reveal stochastic and instructive mechanisms that contribute to observed heterogeneity and elucidate the sequential order of differentiation events. Intercellular interactions can also be studied within these arrays by following responses of a controlled number of interacting cells, all trapped within the same microwell. Here we describe implementations of live-cell imaging within microwell arrays for studies of lymphocyte clonal expansion, portray insights already gained from these experiments and outline directions for future research. These tools, together with in vivo experiments tracking single-cell responses, will expand our understanding of adaptive immunity and the ways by which it can be manipulated.

  13. Comprehensive studies on the interactions between chitosan nanoparticles and some live cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zheng Aiping; Liu Huixue; Yuan Lan; Meng Meng; Wang Jiancheng; Zhang Xuan; Zhang Qiang

    2011-01-01

    As more and more oral formulations of nanoparticles are used in clinical contexts, a comprehensive study on the mechanisms of interaction between polymer nanoparticles and live cells seems merited. Such a study was conducted and the results were compared to the polymer itself in order to demonstrate different kinds of effects that are brought into the cell by polymer and its nanoparticles, especially the effects on the biomembrane. Several techniques, including surface plasmon resonance (SPR), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence polarization spectroscopy (FP), flow cytometry (FCM) with quantitative analysis, and confocal images with antibody staining were employed toward this end. The cytotoxicity in vitro was also evaluated. Chitosan (CS), a polycationic polymer, was used to prepare the nanoparticles. We demonstrate that chitosan nanoparticles (CS-NP) induce strong alterations in the distribution of membrane proteins, fluidity of membrane lipids, and general membrane structure. Furthermore, the uptake of CS-NP into Caco-2 cells was found to have a similar mechanism to that of CS molecules, but the differences in degree were noted. These results indicate that positive charge and nanoscale size were the factors that most significantly affected the interactions between the nanoparticles of polycationic polymers and live cells. However, no difference in cytotoxicity toward the Caco-2 cells was found between CS and CS-NP. This supports the idea that CS-NP is an effective and safe carrier for oral drug delivery.

  14. How we live and why we die the secret lives of cells

    CERN Document Server

    Wolpert, Lewis

    2009-01-01

    Cells are the basis of all life in the universe. Our bodies are made up of billions of them: an incredibly complex society that governs everything, from movement to memory and imagination. When we age, it is because our cells slow down; when we get ill, it is because our cells mutate or stop working. In "How We Live and Why we Die", Wolpert provides a clear explanation of the science that underpins our lives. He explains how our bodies function and how we derived from a single cell - the embryo. He examines the science behind the topics that are much discussed but rarely understood - stem-cell research, cloning, DNA - and explains how all life evolved from just one cell. Lively and passionate, "How We Live and Why we Die" is an accessible guide to understanding the human body and, essentially, life itself.

  15. Long term imaging of living brain cancer cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farias, Patricia M. A.; Galembeck, André; Milani, Raquel; Andrade, Arnaldo C. D. S.; Stingl, Andreas

    2018-02-01

    QDs synthesized in aqueous medium and functionalized with polyethylene glycol were used as fluorescent probes. They label and monitor living healthy and cancer brain glial cells in culture. Physical-chemical characterization was performed. Toxicological studies were performed by in vivo short and long-term inhalation in animal models. Healthy and cancer glial living cells were incubated in culture media with highly controlled QDs. Specific features of glial cancer cells were enhanced by QD labelling. Cytoplasmic labelling pattern was clearly distinct for healthy and cancer cells. Labelled cells kept their normal activity for same period as non-labelled control samples.

  16. Live Cell Characterization of DNA Aggregation Delivered through Lipofection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mieruszynski, Stephen; Briggs, Candida; Digman, Michelle A; Gratton, Enrico; Jones, Mark R

    2015-05-27

    DNA trafficking phenomena, such as information on where and to what extent DNA aggregation occurs, have yet to be fully characterised in the live cell. Here we characterise the aggregation of DNA when delivered through lipofection by applying the Number and Brightness (N&B) approach. The N&B analysis demonstrates extensive aggregation throughout the live cell with DNA clusters in the extremity of the cell and peri-nuclear areas. Once within the nucleus aggregation had decreased 3-fold. In addition, we show that increasing serum concentration of cell media results in greater cytoplasmic aggregation. Further, the effects of the DNA fragment size on aggregation was explored, where larger DNA constructs exhibited less aggregation. This study demonstrates the first quantification of DNA aggregation when delivered through lipofection in live cells. In addition, this study has presents a model for alternative uses of this imaging approach, which was originally developed to study protein oligomerization and aggregation.

  17. Fast automatic quantitative cell replication with fluorescent live cell imaging

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Ching-Wei

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background live cell imaging is a useful tool to monitor cellular activities in living systems. It is often necessary in cancer research or experimental research to quantify the dividing capabilities of cells or the cell proliferation level when investigating manipulations of the cells or their environment. Manual quantification of fluorescence microscopic image is difficult because human is neither sensitive to fine differences in color intensity nor effective to count and average fluorescence level among cells. However, auto-quantification is not a straightforward problem to solve. As the sampling location of the microscopy changes, the amount of cells in individual microscopic images varies, which makes simple measurement methods such as the sum of stain intensity values or the total number of positive stain within each image inapplicable. Thus, automated quantification with robust cell segmentation techniques is required. Results An automated quantification system with robust cell segmentation technique are presented. The experimental results in application to monitor cellular replication activities show that the quantitative score is promising to represent the cell replication level, and scores for images from different cell replication groups are demonstrated to be statistically significantly different using ANOVA, LSD and Tukey HSD tests (p-value Conclusion A robust automated quantification method of live cell imaging is built to measure the cell replication level, providing a robust quantitative analysis system in fluorescent live cell imaging. In addition, the presented unsupervised entropy based cell segmentation for live cell images is demonstrated to be also applicable for nuclear segmentation of IHC tissue images.

  18. Live-cell imaging study of mitochondrial morphology in mammalian cells exposed to X-rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Noguchi, M.; Yokoya, A.; Narita, A.; Fujii, K.; Kanari, Y.

    2015-01-01

    Morphological changes in mitochondria induced by X-irradiation in normal murine mammary gland cells were studied with a live-cell microscopic imaging technique. Mitochondria were visualised by staining with a specific fluorescent probe in the cells, which express fluorescent ubiquitination-based cell-cycle indicator 2 (Fucci2) probes to visualise cell cycle. In unirradiated cells, the number of cells with fragmented mitochondria was about 20 % of the total cells through observation period (96 h). In irradiated cells, the population with fragmented mitochondria significantly increased depending on the absorbed dose. Particularly, for 8 Gy irradiation, the accumulation of fragmentation persists even in the cells whose cell cycle came to a stand (80 % in G1 (G0-like) phase). The fraction reached to a maximum at 96 h after irradiation. The kinetics of the fraction with fragmented mitochondria was similar to that for cells in S/G2/M phase (20 %) through the observation period (120 h). The evidences show that, in irradiated cells, some signals are continually released from a nucleus or cytoplasm even in the G0-like cells to operate some sort of protein machineries involved in mitochondrial fission. It is inferred that this delayed mitochondrial fragmentation is strongly related to their dysfunction, and hence might modulate radiobiological effects such as mutation or cell death. (authors)

  19. A cell transportation solution that preserves live circulating tumor cells in patient blood samples

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stefansson, Steingrimur; Adams, Daniel L.; Ershler, William B.; Le, Huyen; Ho, David H.

    2016-01-01

    Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are typically collected into CellSave fixative tubes, which kills the cells, but preserves their morphology. Currently, the clinical utility of CTCs is mostly limited to their enumeration. More detailed investigation of CTC biology can be performed on live cells, but obtaining live CTCs is technically challenging, requiring blood collection into biocompatible solutions and rapid isolation which limits transportation options. To overcome the instability of CTCs, we formulated a sugar based cell transportation solution (SBTS) that stabilizes cell viability at ambient temperature. In this study we examined the long term viability of human cancer cell lines, primary cells and CTCs in human blood samples in the SBTS for transportation purposes. Four cell lines, 5 primary human cells and purified human PBMCs were tested to determine the viability of cells stored in the transportation solution at ambient temperature for up to 7 days. We then demonstrated viability of MCF-7 cells spiked into normal blood with SBTS and stored for up to 7 days. A pilot study was then run on blood samples from 3 patients with metastatic malignancies stored with or without SBTS for 6 days. CTCs were then purified by Ficoll separation/microfilter isolation and identified using CTC markers. Cell viability was assessed using trypan blue or CellTracker™ live cell stain. Our results suggest that primary/immortalized cell lines stored in SBTS remain ~90 % viable for > 72 h. Further, MCF-7 cells spiked into whole blood remain viable when stored with SBTS for up to 7 days. Finally, live CTCs were isolated from cancer patient blood samples kept in SBTS at ambient temperature for 6 days. No CTCs were isolated from blood samples stored without SBTS. In this proof of principle pilot study we show that viability of cell lines is preserved for days using SBTS. Further, this solution can be used to store patient derived blood samples for eventual isolation of viable CTCs

  20. A cell transportation solution that preserves live circulating tumor cells in patient blood samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stefansson, Steingrimur; Adams, Daniel L; Ershler, William B; Le, Huyen; Ho, David H

    2016-05-06

    Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are typically collected into CellSave fixative tubes, which kills the cells, but preserves their morphology. Currently, the clinical utility of CTCs is mostly limited to their enumeration. More detailed investigation of CTC biology can be performed on live cells, but obtaining live CTCs is technically challenging, requiring blood collection into biocompatible solutions and rapid isolation which limits transportation options. To overcome the instability of CTCs, we formulated a sugar based cell transportation solution (SBTS) that stabilizes cell viability at ambient temperature. In this study we examined the long term viability of human cancer cell lines, primary cells and CTCs in human blood samples in the SBTS for transportation purposes. Four cell lines, 5 primary human cells and purified human PBMCs were tested to determine the viability of cells stored in the transportation solution at ambient temperature for up to 7 days. We then demonstrated viability of MCF-7 cells spiked into normal blood with SBTS and stored for up to 7 days. A pilot study was then run on blood samples from 3 patients with metastatic malignancies stored with or without SBTS for 6 days. CTCs were then purified by Ficoll separation/microfilter isolation and identified using CTC markers. Cell viability was assessed using trypan blue or CellTracker™ live cell stain. Our results suggest that primary/immortalized cell lines stored in SBTS remain ~90% viable for > 72 h. Further, MCF-7 cells spiked into whole blood remain viable when stored with SBTS for up to 7 days. Finally, live CTCs were isolated from cancer patient blood samples kept in SBTS at ambient temperature for 6 days. No CTCs were isolated from blood samples stored without SBTS. In this proof of principle pilot study we show that viability of cell lines is preserved for days using SBTS. Further, this solution can be used to store patient derived blood samples for eventual isolation of viable CTCs after

  1. Application of Live-Cell RNA Imaging Techniques to the Study of Retroviral RNA Trafficking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Darrin V. Bann

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Retroviruses produce full-length RNA that serves both as a genomic RNA (gRNA, which is encapsidated into virus particles, and as an mRNA, which directs the synthesis of viral structural proteins. However, we are only beginning to understand the cellular and viral factors that influence trafficking of retroviral RNA and the selection of the RNA for encapsidation or translation. Live cell imaging studies of retroviral RNA trafficking have provided important insight into many aspects of the retrovirus life cycle including transcription dynamics, nuclear export of viral RNA, translational regulation, membrane targeting, and condensation of the gRNA during virion assembly. Here, we review cutting-edge techniques to visualize single RNA molecules in live cells and discuss the application of these systems to studying retroviral RNA trafficking.

  2. Live cell microscopy of DNA damage response in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pinela da Silva, Sonia Cristina; Gallina, Irene; Eckert-Boulet, Nadine Valerie

    2012-01-01

    live cell imaging allows for multiple cellular markers to be monitored over several hours. This chapter reviews useful fluorescent markers and genotoxic agents for studying the DNA damage response in living cells and provides protocols for live cell imaging, time-lapse microscopy, and for induction...

  3. Live cell imaging reveals at novel view of DNA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moritomi-Yano, Keiko; Yano, Ken-ichi

    2010-01-01

    Non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) is the major repair pathway for DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) that are the most severe form of DNA damages. Recently, live cell imaging techniques coupled with laser micro-irradiation were used to analyze the spatio-temporal behavior of the NHEJ core factors upon DSB induction in living cells. Based on the live cell imaging studies, we proposed a novel two-phase model for DSB sensing and protein assembly in the NHEJ pathway. This new model provides a novel view of the dynamic protein behavior on DSBs and broad implications for the molecular mechanism of NHEJ. (author)

  4. Study of metal bioaccumulation by nuclear microprobe analysis of algae fossils and living algae cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guo, P.; Wang, J.; Li, X.; Zhu, J.; Reinert, T.; Heitmann, J.; Spemann, D.; Vogt, J.; Flagmeyer, R.-H.; Butz, T.

    2000-01-01

    Microscopic ion-beam analysis of palaeo-algae fossils and living green algae cells have been performed to study the metal bioaccumulation processes. The algae fossils, both single cellular and multicellular, are from the late Neoproterozonic (570 million years ago) ocean and perfectly preserved within a phosphorite formation. The biosorption of the rare earth element ions Nd 3+ by the green algae species euglena gracilis was investigated with a comparison between the normal cells and immobilized ones. The new Leipzig Nanoprobe, LIPSION, was used to produce a proton beam with 2 μm size and 0.5 nA beam current for this study. PIXE and RBS techniques were used for analysis and imaging. The observation of small metal rich spores (<10 μm) surrounding both of the fossils and the living cells proved the existence of some specific receptor sites which bind metal carrier ligands at the microbic surface. The bioaccumulation efficiency of neodymium by the algae cells was 10 times higher for immobilized algae cells. It confirms the fact that the algae immobilization is an useful technique to improve its metal bioaccumulation

  5. Cell-permeable nanobodies for targeted immunolabelling and antigen manipulation in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herce, Henry D; Schumacher, Dominik; Schneider, Anselm F L; Ludwig, Anne K; Mann, Florian A; Fillies, Marion; Kasper, Marc-André; Reinke, Stefan; Krause, Eberhard; Leonhardt, Heinrich; Cardoso, M Cristina; Hackenberger, Christian P R

    2017-08-01

    Functional antibody delivery in living cells would enable the labelling and manipulation of intracellular antigens, which constitutes a long-thought goal in cell biology and medicine. Here we present a modular strategy to create functional cell-permeable nanobodies capable of targeted labelling and manipulation of intracellular antigens in living cells. The cell-permeable nanobodies are formed by the site-specific attachment of intracellularly stable (or cleavable) cyclic arginine-rich cell-penetrating peptides to camelid-derived single-chain VHH antibody fragments. We used this strategy for the non-endocytic delivery of two recombinant nanobodies into living cells, which enabled the relocalization of the polymerase clamp PCNA (proliferating cell nuclear antigen) and tumour suppressor p53 to the nucleolus, and thereby allowed the detection of protein-protein interactions that involve these two proteins in living cells. Furthermore, cell-permeable nanobodies permitted the co-transport of therapeutically relevant proteins, such as Mecp2, into the cells. This technology constitutes a major step in the labelling, delivery and targeted manipulation of intracellular antigens. Ultimately, this approach opens the door towards immunostaining in living cells and the expansion of immunotherapies to intracellular antigen targets.

  6. Cell-permeable nanobodies for targeted immunolabelling and antigen manipulation in living cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herce, Henry D.; Schumacher, Dominik; Schneider, Anselm F. L.; Ludwig, Anne K.; Mann, Florian A.; Fillies, Marion; Kasper, Marc-André; Reinke, Stefan; Krause, Eberhard; Leonhardt, Heinrich; Cardoso, M. Cristina; Hackenberger, Christian P. R.

    2017-08-01

    Functional antibody delivery in living cells would enable the labelling and manipulation of intracellular antigens, which constitutes a long-thought goal in cell biology and medicine. Here we present a modular strategy to create functional cell-permeable nanobodies capable of targeted labelling and manipulation of intracellular antigens in living cells. The cell-permeable nanobodies are formed by the site-specific attachment of intracellularly stable (or cleavable) cyclic arginine-rich cell-penetrating peptides to camelid-derived single-chain VHH antibody fragments. We used this strategy for the non-endocytic delivery of two recombinant nanobodies into living cells, which enabled the relocalization of the polymerase clamp PCNA (proliferating cell nuclear antigen) and tumour suppressor p53 to the nucleolus, and thereby allowed the detection of protein-protein interactions that involve these two proteins in living cells. Furthermore, cell-permeable nanobodies permitted the co-transport of therapeutically relevant proteins, such as Mecp2, into the cells. This technology constitutes a major step in the labelling, delivery and targeted manipulation of intracellular antigens. Ultimately, this approach opens the door towards immunostaining in living cells and the expansion of immunotherapies to intracellular antigen targets.

  7. Semi-automated quantification of living cells with internalized nanostructures

    KAUST Repository

    Margineanu, Michael B.

    2016-01-15

    Background Nanostructures fabricated by different methods have become increasingly important for various applications in biology and medicine, such as agents for medical imaging or cancer therapy. In order to understand their interaction with living cells and their internalization kinetics, several attempts have been made in tagging them. Although methods have been developed to measure the number of nanostructures internalized by the cells, there are only few approaches aimed to measure the number of cells that internalize the nanostructures, and they are usually limited to fixed-cell studies. Flow cytometry can be used for live-cell assays on large populations of cells, however it is a single time point measurement, and does not include any information about cell morphology. To date many of the observations made on internalization events are limited to few time points and cells. Results In this study, we present a method for quantifying cells with internalized magnetic nanowires (NWs). A machine learning-based computational framework, CellCognition, is adapted and used to classify cells with internalized and no internalized NWs, labeled with the fluorogenic pH-dependent dye pHrodo™ Red, and subsequently to determine the percentage of cells with internalized NWs at different time points. In a “proof-of-concept”, we performed a study on human colon carcinoma HCT 116 cells and human epithelial cervical cancer HeLa cells interacting with iron (Fe) and nickel (Ni) NWs. Conclusions This study reports a novel method for the quantification of cells that internalize a specific type of nanostructures. This approach is suitable for high-throughput and real-time data analysis and has the potential to be used to study the interaction of different types of nanostructures in live-cell assays.

  8. Aberration-free FTIR spectroscopic imaging of live cells in microfluidic devices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chan, K L Andrew; Kazarian, Sergei G

    2013-07-21

    The label-free, non-destructive chemical analysis offered by FTIR spectroscopic imaging is a very attractive and potentially powerful tool for studies of live biological cells. FTIR imaging of live cells is a challenging task, due to the fact that cells are cultured in an aqueous environment. While the synchrotron facility has proven to be a valuable tool for FTIR microspectroscopic studies of single live cells, we have demonstrated that high quality infrared spectra of single live cells using an ordinary Globar source can also be obtained by adding a pair of lenses to a common transmission liquid cell. The lenses, when placed on the transmission cell window, form pseudo hemispheres which removes the refraction of light and hence improve the imaging and spectral quality of the obtained data. This study demonstrates that infrared spectra of single live cells can be obtained without the focus shifting effect at different wavenumbers, caused by the chromatic aberration. Spectra of the single cells have confirmed that the measured spectral region remains in focus across the whole range, while spectra of the single cells measured without the lenses have shown some erroneous features as a result of the shift of focus. It has also been demonstrated that the addition of lenses can be applied to the imaging of cells in microfabricated devices. We have shown that it was not possible to obtain a focused image of an isolated cell in a droplet of DPBS in oil unless the lenses are applied. The use of the approach described herein allows for well focused images of single cells in DPBS droplets to be obtained.

  9. Real-time Molecular Study of Bystander Effects of Low dose Low LET radiation Using Living Cell Imaging and Nanoparticale Optics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Natarajan, Mohan [UT Health Science Center at San Antonio; Xu, Nancy R [Old Dominion University; Mohan, Sumathy [UT Health Science Center at San Antonio

    2013-06-03

    In this study two novel approaches are proposed to investigate precisely the low dose low LET radiation damage and its effect on bystander cells in real time. First, a flow shear model system, which would provide us a near in vivo situation where endothelial cells in the presence of extra cellular matrix experiencing continuous flow shear stress, will be used. Endothelial cells on matri-gel (simulated extra cellular matrix) will be subjected to physiological flow shear (that occurs in normal blood vessels). Second, a unique tool (Single nano particle/single live cell/single molecule microscopy and spectroscopy; Figure A) will be used to track the molecular trafficking by single live cell imaging. Single molecule chemical microscopy allows one to single out and study rare events that otherwise might be lost in assembled average measurement, and monitor many target single molecules simultaneously in real-time. Multi color single novel metal nanoparticle probes allow one to prepare multicolor probes (Figure B) to monitor many single components (events) simultaneously and perform multi-complex analysis in real-time. These nano-particles resist to photo bleaching and hence serve as probes for unlimited timeframe of analysis. Single live cell microscopy allows one to image many single cells simultaneously in real-time. With the combination of these unique tools, we will be able to study under near-physiological conditions the cellular and sub-cellular responses (even subtle changes at one molecule level) to low and very low doses of low LET radiation in real time (milli-second or nano-second) at sub-10 nanometer spatial resolution. This would allow us to precisely identify, at least in part, the molecular mediators that are responsible of radiation damage in the irradiated cells and the mediators that are responsible for initiating the signaling in the neighboring cells. Endothelial cells subjected to flow shear (2 dynes/cm2 or 16 dynes/cm2) and exposed to 0.1, 1 and 10

  10. Laser-Raman spectroscopy of living cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Webb, S.J.

    1980-01-01

    Investigations into the laser-Raman shift spectra of bacterial and mammalian cells have revealed that many Raman lines observed at 4-6 K, do not appear in the spectra of cells held at 300 K. At 300 K, Raman activity, at set frequencies, is observed only when the cells are metabolically active; however, the actual live cell spectrum, between 0 and 3400 cm -1 , has been found to alter in a specific way with time as the cells' progress through their life cycles. Lines above 300 cm -1 , from in vivo Raman active states, appear to shift to higher wave numbers whereas those below 300 cm -1 seem to shift to lower ones. The transient nature of many shift lines observed and the intensity of them when present in the spectrum indicates that, in, vivo, a metabolically induced condensation of closely related states occurs at a set time in the life of a living cell. In addition, the calculated ratio between the intensities of Stokes and anti-Stokes lines observed suggests that the metabolically induced 'collective' Raman active states are produced, in vivo, by non thermal means. It appears, therefore, that the energetics of the well established cell 'time clock' may be studied by laser-Raman spectroscopy; moreover, Raman spectroscopy may yield a new type of information regarding the physics of such biological phenomena as nutrition, virus infection and oncogenesis. (orig.)

  11. Long-Term Live Cell Imaging of Cell Migration: Effects of Pathogenic Fungi on Human Epithelial Cell Migration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wöllert, Torsten; Langford, George M

    2016-01-01

    Long-term live cell imaging was used in this study to determine the responses of human epithelial cells to pathogenic biofilms formed by Candida albicans. Epithelial cells of the skin represent the front line of defense against invasive pathogens such as C. albicans but under certain circumstances, especially when the host's immune system is compromised, the skin barrier is breached. The mechanisms by which the fungal pathogen penetrates the skin and invade the deeper layers are not fully understood. In this study we used keratinocytes grown in culture as an in vitro model system to determine changes in host cell migration and the actin cytoskeleton in response to virulence factors produced by biofilms of pathogenic C. albicans. It is clear that changes in epithelial cell migration are part of the response to virulence factors secreted by biofilms of C. albicans and the actin cytoskeleton is the downstream effector that mediates cell migration. Our goal is to understand the mechanism by which virulence factors hijack the signaling pathways of the actin cytoskeleton to alter cell migration and thereby invade host tissues. To understand the dynamic changes of the actin cytoskeleton during infection, we used long-term live cell imaging to obtain spatial and temporal information of actin filament dynamics and to identify signal transduction pathways that regulate the actin cytoskeleton and its associated proteins. Long-term live cell imaging was achieved using a high resolution, multi-mode epifluorescence microscope equipped with specialized light sources, high-speed cameras with high sensitivity detectors, and specific biocompatible fluorescent markers. In addition to the multi-mode epifluorescence microscope, a spinning disk confocal long-term live cell imaging system (Olympus CV1000) equipped with a stage incubator to create a stable in vitro environment for long-term real-time and time-lapse microscopy was used. Detailed descriptions of these two long-term live

  12. PeakForce Tapping resolves individual microvilli on living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schillers, Hermann; Medalsy, Izhar; Hu, Shuiqing; Slade, Andrea L; Shaw, James E

    2016-02-01

    Microvilli are a common structure found on epithelial cells that increase the apical surface thus enhancing the transmembrane transport capacity and also serve as one of the cell's mechanosensors. These structures are composed of microfilaments and cytoplasm, covered by plasma membrane. Epithelial cell function is usually coupled to the density of microvilli and its individual size illustrated by diseases, in which microvilli degradation causes malabsorption and diarrhea. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been widely used to study the topography and morphology of living cells. Visualizing soft and flexible structures such as microvilli on the apical surface of a live cell has been very challenging because the native microvilli structures are displaced and deformed by the interaction with the probe. PeakForce Tapping® is an AFM imaging mode, which allows reducing tip-sample interactions in time (microseconds) and controlling force in the low pico-Newton range. Data acquisition of this mode was optimized by using a newly developed PeakForce QNM-Live Cell probe, having a short cantilever with a 17-µm-long tip that minimizes hydrodynamic effects between the cantilever and the sample surface. In this paper, we have demonstrated for the first time the visualization of the microvilli on living kidney cells with AFM using PeakForce Tapping. The structures observed display a force dependence representing either the whole microvilli or just the tips of the microvilli layer. Together, PeakForce Tapping allows force control in the low pico-Newton range and enables the visualization of very soft and flexible structures on living cells under physiological conditions. © 2015 The Authors Journal of Molecular Recognition Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  13. Live cell imaging techniques to study T cell trafficking across the blood-brain barrier in vitro and in vivo

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Coisne Caroline

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The central nervous system (CNS is an immunologically privileged site to which access for circulating immune cells is tightly controlled by the endothelial blood–brain barrier (BBB located in CNS microvessels. Under physiological conditions immune cell migration across the BBB is low. However, in neuroinflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis, many immune cells can cross the BBB and cause neurological symptoms. Extravasation of circulating immune cells is a multi-step process that is regulated by the sequential interaction of different adhesion and signaling molecules on the immune cells and on the endothelium. The specialized barrier characteristics of the BBB, therefore, imply the existence of unique mechanisms for immune cell migration across the BBB. Methods and design An in vitro mouse BBB model maintaining physiological barrier characteristics in a flow chamber and combined with high magnification live cell imaging, has been established. This model enables the molecular mechanisms involved in the multi-step extravasation of T cells across the in vitro BBB, to be defined with high-throughput analyses. Subsequently these mechanisms have been verified in vivo using a limited number of experimental animals and a spinal cord window surgical technique. The window enables live observation of the dynamic interaction between T cells and spinal cord microvessels under physiological and pathological conditions using real time epifluorescence intravital imaging. These in vitro and in vivo live cell imaging methods have shown that the BBB endothelium possesses unique and specialized mechanisms involved in the multi-step T cell migration across this endothelial barrier under physiological flow. The initial T cell interaction with the endothelium is either mediated by T cell capture or by T cell rolling. Arrest follows, and then T cells polarize and especially CD4+ T cells crawl over long distances against the direction of

  14. Site-Specific Bioorthogonal Labeling for Fluorescence Imaging of Intracellular Proteins in Living Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Tao; Hang, Howard C

    2016-11-02

    Over the past years, fluorescent proteins (e.g., green fluorescent proteins) have been widely utilized to visualize recombinant protein expression and localization in live cells. Although powerful, fluorescent protein tags are limited by their relatively large sizes and potential perturbation to protein function. Alternatively, site-specific labeling of proteins with small-molecule organic fluorophores using bioorthogonal chemistry may provide a more precise and less perturbing method. This approach involves site-specific incorporation of unnatural amino acids (UAAs) into proteins via genetic code expansion, followed by bioorthogonal chemical labeling with small organic fluorophores in living cells. While this approach has been used to label extracellular proteins for live cell imaging studies, site-specific bioorthogonal labeling and fluorescence imaging of intracellular proteins in live cells is still challenging. Herein, we systematically evaluate site-specific incorporation of diastereomerically pure bioorthogonal UAAs bearing stained alkynes or alkenes into intracellular proteins for inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder cycloaddition reactions with tetrazine-functionalized fluorophores for live cell labeling and imaging in mammalian cells. Our studies show that site-specific incorporation of axial diastereomer of trans-cyclooct-2-ene-lysine robustly affords highly efficient and specific bioorthogonal labeling with monosubstituted tetrazine fluorophores in live mammalian cells, which enabled us to image the intracellular localization and real-time dynamic trafficking of IFITM3, a small membrane-associated protein with only 137 amino acids, for the first time. Our optimized UAA incorporation and bioorthogonal labeling conditions also enabled efficient site-specific fluorescence labeling of other intracellular proteins for live cell imaging studies in mammalian cells.

  15. Quantification of nanowire uptake by live cells

    KAUST Repository

    Margineanu, Michael B.

    2015-01-01

    attempts have been made at tagging and investigating their interaction with living cells. In this study, magnetic iron nanowires with an iron oxide layer are coated with (3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES), and subsequently labeled with a fluorogenic p

  16. 4Pi-confocal microscopy of live cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bahlmann, Karsten; Jakobs, Stefan; Hell, Stefan W.

    2002-06-01

    By coherently adding the spherical wavefronts of two opposing lenses, two-photon excitation 4Pi-confocal fluorescence microscopy has achieved three-dimensional imaging with an axial resolution 3-7 times better than confocal microscopy. So far this improvement was possible only in glycerol-mounted, fixed cells. Here we report 4Pi-confocal microscopy of watery objects and its application to the imaging of live cells. Water immersion 4Pi-confocal microscopy of membrane stained live Escherichia coli bacteria attains a 4.3 fold better axial resolution as compared to the best water immersion confocal microscope. The resolution enhancement results into a vastly improved three-dimensional representation of the bacteria. The first images of live biological samples with an all-directional resolution in the 190-280 nm range are presented here, thus establishing a new resolution benchmark in live cell microscopy.

  17. What is the impact of giant cell arteritis on patients’ lives? A UK qualitative study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liddle, Jennifer; Bartlam, Roisin; Mallen, Christian D; Mackie, Sarah L; Prior, James A; Helliwell, Toby; Richardson, Jane C

    2017-01-01

    Objectives Clinical management of giant cell arteritis (GCA) involves balancing the risks and burdens arising from the disease with those arising from treatment, but there is little research on the nature of those burdens. We aimed to explore the impact of giant cell arteritis (GCA) and its treatment on patients’ lives. Methods UK patients with GCA participated in semi-structured telephone interviews. Inductive thematic analysis was employed. Results 24 participants were recruited (age: 65–92 years, time since diagnosis: 2 months to >6 years). The overarching themes from analysis were: ongoing symptoms of the disease and its treatment; and ‘life-changing’ impacts. The overall impact of GCA on patients’ lives arose from a changing combination of symptoms, side effects, adaptations to everyday life and impacts on sense of normality. Important factors contributing to loss of normality were glucocorticoid-related treatment burdens and fear about possible future loss of vision. Conclusions The impact of GCA in patients’ everyday lives can be substantial, multifaceted and ongoing despite apparent control of disease activity. The findings of this study will help doctors better understand patient priorities, legitimise patients’ experiences of GCA and work with patients to set realistic treatment goals and plan adaptations to their everyday lives. PMID:28838902

  18. Microencapsulation Of Living Cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chang, Manchium; Kendall, James M.; Wang, Taylor G.

    1989-01-01

    In experimental technique, living cells and other biological materials encapsulated within submillimeter-diameter liquid-filled spheres. Sphere material biocompatible, tough, and compliant. Semipermeable, permitting relatively small molecules to move into and out of sphere core but preventing passage of large molecules. New technique promises to make such spherical capsules at high rates and in uniform, controllable sizes. Capsules injected into patient through ordinary hypodermic needle. Promising application for technique in treatment of diabetes. Also used to encapsulate pituitary cells and thyroid hormone adrenocortical cells for treatment of other hormonal disorders, to encapsulate other secreting cells for transplantation, and to package variety of pharmaceutical products and agricultural chemicals for controlled release.

  19. Live cell refractometry using microfluidic devices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lue, Niyom; Popescu, Gabriel; Ikeda, Takahiro; Dasari, Ramachandra R; Badizadegan, Kamran; Feld, Michael S

    2006-09-15

    Using Hilbert phase microscopy for extracting quantitative phase images, we measured the average refractive index associated with live cells in culture. To decouple the contributions to the phase signal from the cell refractive index and thickness, we confined the cells in microchannels. The results are confirmed by comparison with measurements of spherical cells in suspension.

  20. Collective Dynamics of Intracellular Water in Living Cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Orecchini, A; Sebastiani, F; Paciaroni, A; Petrillo, C; Sacchetti, F; Jasnin, M; Francesco, A De; Zaccai, G; Moulin, M; Haertlein, M

    2012-01-01

    Water dynamics plays a fundamental role for the fulfillment of biological functions in living organisms. Decades of hydrated protein powder studies have revealed the peculiar dynamical properties of hydration water with respect to pure water, due to close coupling interactions with the macromolecule. In such a framework, we have studied coherent collective dynamics in protein and DNA hydration water. State-of-the-art neutron instrumentation has allowed us to observe the propagation of coherent density fluctuations within the hydration shell of the biomolecules. The corresponding dispersion curves resulted to be only slightly affected by the coupling with the macromolecules. Nevertheless, the effects of the interaction appeared as a marked increase of the mode damping factors, which suggested a destructuring of the water hydrogen-bond network. Such results were interpreted as the signature of a 'glassy' dynamical character of macromolecule hydration water, in agreement with indications from measurements of the density of vibrational states. Extending the investigations to living organisms at physiological conditions, we present here an in-vivo study of collective dynamics of intracellular water in Escherichia coli cells. The cells and water were fully deuterated to minimise the incoherent neutron scattering background. The water dynamics observed in the living cells is discussed in terms of the dynamics of pure bulk water and that of hydration water measured in powder samples.

  1. Uranium and thorium uptake by live and dead cells of Pseudomonas Sp

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Siva Prasath, C.S.; Manikandan, N.; Prakash, S.

    2010-01-01

    This study presents uptake of uranium (U) and thorium (Th) by live and dead cells of Pseudomonas Sp. Increasing concentration of U and Tb showed decrease in absorption by Pseudomonas Sp. Dead cells of Pseudomonas Sp. exhibited same or more uptake of U and Th than living cells. Increasing temperature promotes uptake of U and Th by Pseudomonas Sp. (author)

  2. Ultrafast nanolaser device for detecting cancer in a single live cell.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gourley, Paul Lee; McDonald, Anthony Eugene

    2007-11-01

    Emerging BioMicroNanotechnologies have the potential to provide accurate, realtime, high throughput screening of live tumor cells without invasive chemical reagents when coupled with ultrafast laser methods. These optically based methods are critical to advancing early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. The first year goals of this project are to develop a laser-based imaging system integrated with an in- vitro, live-cell, micro-culture to study mammalian cells under controlled conditions. In the second year, the system will be used to elucidate the morphology and distribution of mitochondria in the normal cell respiration state and in the disease state for normal and disease states of the cell. In this work we designed and built an in-vitro, live-cell culture microsystem to study mammalian cells under controlled conditions of pH, temp, CO2, Ox, humidity, on engineered material surfaces. We demonstrated viability of cell culture in the microsystem by showing that cells retain healthy growth rates, exhibit normal morphology, and grow to confluence without blebbing or other adverse influences of the material surfaces. We also demonstrated the feasibility of integrating the culture microsystem with laser-imaging and performed nanolaser flow spectrocytometry to carry out analysis of the cells isolated mitochondria.

  3. Functional living biointerfaces to direct cell-material interaction

    OpenAIRE

    Rodrigo Navarro, Aleixandre

    2016-01-01

    [EN] This thesis deals with the development of a living biointerface between synthetic substrates and living cells to engineer cell-material interactions for tissue engineering purposes. This living biointerface is made of Lactococcus lactis, a non-pathogenic lactic bacteria widely used as starter in the dairy industry and, recently, in the expression of heterologous proteins in applications such as oral vaccine delivery or membrane-bound expression of proteins. L. lactis has been engine...

  4. Functional memory B cells and long-lived plasma cells are generated after a single Plasmodium chabaudi infection in mice.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francis Maina Ndungu

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Antibodies have long been shown to play a critical role in naturally acquired immunity to malaria, but it has been suggested that Plasmodium-specific antibodies in humans may not be long lived. The cellular mechanisms underlying B cell and antibody responses are difficult to study in human infections; therefore, we have investigated the kinetics, duration and characteristics of the Plasmodium-specific memory B cell response in an infection of P. chabaudi in mice. Memory B cells and plasma cells specific for the C-terminal region of Merozoite Surface Protein 1 were detectable for more than eight months following primary infection. Furthermore, a classical memory response comprised predominantly of the T-cell dependent isotypes IgG2c, IgG2b and IgG1 was elicited upon rechallenge with the homologous parasite, confirming the generation of functional memory B cells. Using cyclophosphamide treatment to discriminate between long-lived and short-lived plasma cells, we demonstrated long-lived cells secreting Plasmodium-specific IgG in both bone marrow and in spleens of infected mice. The presence of these long-lived cells was independent of the presence of chronic infection, as removal of parasites with anti-malarial drugs had no impact on their numbers. Thus, in this model of malaria, both functional Plasmodium-specific memory B cells and long-lived plasma cells can be generated, suggesting that defects in generating these cell populations may not be the reason for generating short-lived antibody responses.

  5. Cyborg cells: functionalisation of living cells with polymers and nanomaterials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fakhrullin, Rawil F; Zamaleeva, Alsu I; Minullina, Renata T; Konnova, Svetlana A; Paunov, Vesselin N

    2012-06-07

    Living cells interfaced with a range of polyelectrolyte coatings, magnetic and noble metal nanoparticles, hard mineral shells and other complex nanomaterials can perform functions often completely different from their original specialisation. Such "cyborg cells" are already finding a range of novel applications in areas like whole cell biosensors, bioelectronics, toxicity microscreening, tissue engineering, cell implant protection and bioanalytical chemistry. In this tutorial review, we describe the development of novel methods for functionalisation of cells with polymers and nanoparticles and comment on future advances in this technology in the light of other literature approaches. We review recent studies on the cell viability and function upon direct deposition of nanoparticles, coating with polyelectrolytes, polymer assisted assembly of nanomaterials and hard shells on the cell surface. The cell toxicity issues are considered for many practical applications in terms of possible adverse effects of the deposited polymers, polyelectrolytes and nanoparticles on the cell surface.

  6. Noninvasive imaging of protein-protein interactions from live cells and living subjects using bioluminescence resonance energy transfer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De, Abhijit; Gambhir, Sanjiv Sam

    2005-12-01

    This study demonstrates a significant advancement of imaging of a distance-dependent physical process, known as the bioluminescent resonance energy transfer (BRET2) signal in living subjects, by using a cooled charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. A CCD camera-based spectral imaging strategy enables simultaneous visualization and quantitation of BRET signal from live cells and cells implanted in living mice. We used the BRET2 system, which utilizes Renilla luciferase (hRluc) protein and its substrate DeepBlueC (DBC) as an energy donor and a mutant green fluorescent protein (GFP2) as the acceptor. To accomplish this objective in this proof-of-principle study, the donor and acceptor proteins were fused to FKBP12 and FRB, respectively, which are known to interact only in the presence of the small molecule mediator rapamycin. Mammalian cells expressing these fusion constructs were imaged using a cooled-CCD camera either directly from culture dishes or by implanting them into mice. By comparing the emission photon yields in the presence and absence of rapamycin, the specific BRET signal was determined. The CCD imaging approach of BRET signal is particularly appealing due to its capacity to seamlessly bridge the gap between in vitro and in vivo studies. This work validates BRET as a powerful tool for interrogating and observing protein-protein interactions directly at limited depths in living mice.

  7. Single gold nanoparticle plasmonic spectroscopy for study of chemical-dependent efflux function of single ABC transporters of single live Bacillus subtilis cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Browning, Lauren M; Lee, Kerry J; Cherukuri, Pavan K; Huang, Tao; Songkiatisak, Preeyaporn; Warren, Seth; Xu, Xiao-Hong Nancy

    2018-03-26

    ATP-binding cassette (ABC) membrane transporters serve as self-defense transport apparatus in many living organisms and they can selectively extrude a wide variety of substrates, leading to multidrug resistance (MDR). The detailed molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Single nanoparticle plasmonic spectroscopy highly depends upon their sizes, shapes, chemical and surface properties. In our previous studies, we have used the size-dependent plasmonic spectra of single silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) to study the real-time efflux kinetics of the ABC (BmrA) transporter and MexAB-OprM transporter in single live cells (Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterium), respectively. In this study, we prepared and used purified, biocompatible and stable (non-aggregated) gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) (12.4 ± 0.9 nm) to study the efflux kinetics of single BmrA membrane transporters of single live Bacillus subtillis cells, aiming to probe chemical dependent efflux functions of BmrA transporters and their potential chemical sensing capability. Similar to those observed using Ag NPs, accumulation of the intracellular Au NPs in single live cells (WT and ΔBmrA) highly depends upon the cellular expression of BmrA and the NP concentration (0.7 and 1.4 nM). The lower accumulation of intracellular Au NPs in WT (normal expression of BmrA) than ΔBmrA (deletion of bmrA) indicates that BmrA extrudes the Au NPs out of the WT cells. The accumulation of Au NPs in the cells increases with NP concentration, suggesting that the Au NPs most likely passively diffuse into the cells, similar to antibiotics. The result demonstrates that such small Au NPs can serve as imaging probes to study the efflux function of the BmrA membrane transporter in single live cells. Furthermore, the dependence of the accumulation rate of intracellular Au NPs in single live cells upon the expression of BmrA and the concentration of the NPs is about twice higher than that of the same sized Ag NPs. This interesting finding

  8. Detecting and Tracking Nonfluorescent Nanoparticles Probes in Live Cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Gufeng; Fang, Ning

    2012-01-17

    Precisely imaging and tracking dynamic biological processes in live cells are crucial for both fundamental research in life sciences and biomedical applications. Nonfluorescent nanoparticles are emerging as important optical probes in live-cell imaging because of their excellent photostability, large optical cross sections, and low cytotoxicity. Here, we provide a review of recent development in optical imaging of nonfluorescent nanoparticle probes and their applications in dynamic tracking and biosensing in live cells. A brief discussion on cytotoxicity of nanoparticle probes is also provided.

  9. A study of the dynamics of PTEN proteins in living cells using in vivo fluorescence correlation spectroscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Du, Zhixue; Dong, Chaoqing; Ren, Jicun

    2017-06-01

    PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog on chromosome 10) is one of the most important tumor-suppressor proteins, which plays a key role in negative regulation of the PI3K/AKT pathway, and governs many cellular processes including growth, proliferation, survival and migration. The dynamics of PTEN proteins in single living cells is as yet unclear owing to a shortage of suitable in vivo approaches. Here, we report a single-molecule method for in vivo study of the dynamics of PTEN proteins in living cells using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). First, we established a monoclonal H1299 stable cell line expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) and PTEN (EGFP-PTEN) fusion proteins; we then developed an in vivo FCS method to study the dynamics of EGFP-PTEN both in the nucleus and the cytoplasm. We investigated the diffusion behaviors of EGFP and EGFP-PTEN in solution, nucleus and cytosol, and observed that the motion of PTEN in living cells was restricted compared with EGFP. Finally, we investigated the protein dynamics in living cells under oxidative stress stimulation and a cellular ATP depletion treatment. Under oxidative stress stimulation, the EGFP-PTEN concentration increased in the nucleus, but slightly decreased in the cytoplasm. The diffusion coefficient and alpha value of EGFP-PTEN reduced significantly both in the nucleus and cytoplasm; the significantly decreased alpha parameter indicates a more restricted Brownian diffusion behavior. Under the cellular ATP depletion treatment, the concentration of EGFP-PTEN remained unchanged in the nucleus and decreased significantly in cytosol. The diffusion coefficient of EGFP-PTEN decreased significantly in cytosol, but showed no significant change in the nucleus; the alpha value decreased significantly in both the nucleus and cytoplasm. These results suggest that the concentration and mobility of PTEN in the nucleus and cytoplasm can be regulated by stimulation methods. Our approach provides a unique

  10. Inter-chromosomal Contact Properties in Live-Cell Imaging and in Hi-C.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maass, Philipp G; Barutcu, A Rasim; Weiner, Catherine L; Rinn, John L

    2018-03-15

    Imaging (fluorescence in situ hybridization [FISH]) and genome-wide chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) are two major approaches to the study of higher-order genome organization in the nucleus. Intra-chromosomal and inter-chromosomal interactions (referred to as non-homologous chromosomal contacts [NHCCs]) have been observed by several FISH-based studies, but locus-specific NHCCs have not been detected by Hi-C. Due to crosslinking, neither of these approaches assesses spatiotemporal properties. Toward resolving the discrepancies between imaging and Hi-C, we sought to understand the spatiotemporal properties of NHCCs in living cells by CRISPR/Cas9 live-cell imaging (CLING). In mammalian cells, we find that NHCCs are stable and occur as frequently as intra-chromosomal interactions, but NHCCs occur at farther spatial distance that could explain their lack of detection in Hi-C. By revealing the spatiotemporal properties in living cells, our study provides fundamental insights into the biology of NHCCs. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. FORMING SELF-ASSEMBLED CELL ARRAYS AND MEASURING THE OXYGEN CONSUMPTION RATE OF A SINGLE LIVE CELL.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Etzkorn, James R; McQuaide, Sarah C; Anderson, Judy B; Meldrum, Deirdre R; Parviz, Babak A

    2009-06-01

    We report a method for forming arrays of live single cells on a chip using polymer micro-traps made of SU8. We have studied the toxicity of the microfabricated structures and the associated environment for two cell lines. We also report a method for measuring the oxygen consumption rate of a single cell using optical interrogation of molecular oxygen sensors placed in micromachined micro-wells by temporarily sealing the cells in the micro-traps. The new techniques presented here add to the collection of tools available for performing "single-cell" biology. A single-cell self-assembly yield of 61% was achieved with oxygen draw down rates of 0.83, 0.82, and 0.71 fmol/minute on three isolated live A549 cells.

  12. Use of an optical trap for study of host-pathogen interactions for dynamic live cell imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tam, Jenny M; Castro, Carlos E; Heath, Robert J W; Mansour, Michael K; Cardenas, Michael L; Xavier, Ramnik J; Lang, Matthew J; Vyas, Jatin M

    2011-07-28

    Dynamic live cell imaging allows direct visualization of real-time interactions between cells of the immune system(1, 2); however, the lack of spatial and temporal control between the phagocytic cell and microbe has rendered focused observations into the initial interactions of host response to pathogens difficult. Historically, intercellular contact events such as phagocytosis(3) have been imaged by mixing two cell types, and then continuously scanning the field-of-view to find serendipitous intercellular contacts at the appropriate stage of interaction. The stochastic nature of these events renders this process tedious, and it is difficult to observe early or fleeting events in cell-cell contact by this approach. This method requires finding cell pairs that are on the verge of contact, and observing them until they consummate their contact, or do not. To address these limitations, we use optical trapping as a non-invasive, non-destructive, but fast and effective method to position cells in culture. Optical traps, or optical tweezers, are increasingly utilized in biological research to capture and physically manipulate cells and other micron-sized particles in three dimensions(4). Radiation pressure was first observed and applied to optical tweezer systems in 1970(5, 6), and was first used to control biological specimens in 1987(7). Since then, optical tweezers have matured into a technology to probe a variety of biological phenomena(8-13). We describe a method(14) that advances live cell imaging by integrating an optical trap with spinning disk confocal microscopy with temperature and humidity control to provide exquisite spatial and temporal control of pathogenic organisms in a physiological environment to facilitate interactions with host cells, as determined by the operator. Live, pathogenic organisms like Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus, which can cause potentially lethal, invasive infections in immunocompromised individuals(15, 16) (e.g. AIDS

  13. Assessing resolution in live cell structured illumination microscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pospíšil, Jakub; Fliegel, Karel; Klíma, Miloš

    2017-12-01

    Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM) is a powerful super-resolution technique, which is able to enhance the resolution of optical microscope beyond the Abbe diffraction limit. In the last decade, numerous SIM methods that achieve the resolution of 100 nm in the lateral dimension have been developed. The SIM setups with new high-speed cameras and illumination pattern generators allow rapid acquisition of the live specimen. Therefore, SIM is widely used for investigation of the live structures in molecular and live cell biology. Quantitative evaluation of resolution enhancement in a real sample is essential to describe the efficiency of super-resolution microscopy technique. However, measuring the resolution of a live cell sample is a challenging task. Based on our experimental findings, the widely used Fourier ring correlation (FRC) method does not seem to be well suited for measuring the resolution of SIM live cell video sequences. Therefore, the resolution assessing methods based on Fourier spectrum analysis are often used. We introduce a measure based on circular average power spectral density (PSDca) estimated from a single SIM image (one video frame). PSDca describes the distribution of the power of a signal with respect to its spatial frequency. Spatial resolution corresponds to the cut-off frequency in Fourier space. In order to estimate the cut-off frequency from a noisy signal, we use a spectral subtraction method for noise suppression. In the future, this resolution assessment approach might prove useful also for single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM) live cell imaging.

  14. Analysis of live cell images: Methods, tools and opportunities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nketia, Thomas A; Sailem, Heba; Rohde, Gustavo; Machiraju, Raghu; Rittscher, Jens

    2017-02-15

    Advances in optical microscopy, biosensors and cell culturing technologies have transformed live cell imaging. Thanks to these advances live cell imaging plays an increasingly important role in basic biology research as well as at all stages of drug development. Image analysis methods are needed to extract quantitative information from these vast and complex data sets. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of available image analysis methods for live cell imaging, in particular required preprocessing image segmentation, cell tracking and data visualisation methods. The potential opportunities recent advances in machine learning, especially deep learning, and computer vision provide are being discussed. This review includes overview of the different available software packages and toolkits. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  15. Live cell imaging of actin dynamics in dexamethasone-treated porcine trabecular meshwork cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujimoto, Tomokazu; Inoue, Toshihiro; Inoue-Mochita, Miyuki; Tanihara, Hidenobu

    2016-04-01

    The regulation of the actin cytoskeleton in trabecular meshwork (TM) cells is important for controlling outflow of the aqueous humor. In some reports, dexamethasone (DEX) increased the aqueous humor outflow resistance and induced unusual actin structures, such as cross-linked actin networks (CLAN), in TM cells. However, the functions and dynamics of CLAN in TM cells are not completely known, partly because actin stress fibers have been observed only in fixed cells. We conducted live-cell imaging of the actin dynamics in TM cells with or without DEX treatment. An actin-green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion construct with a modified insect virus was transfected into porcine TM cells. Time-lapse imaging of live TM cells treated with 25 μM Y-27632 and 100 nM DEX was performed using an inverted fluorescence microscope. Fluorescent images were recorded every 15 s for 30 min after Y-27632 treatment or every 30 min for 72 h after DEX treatment. The GFP-actin was expressed in 22.7 ± 10.9% of the transfected TM cells. In live TM cells, many actin stress fibers were observed before the Y-27632 treatment. Y-27632 changed the cell shape and decreased stress fibers in a time-dependent manner. In fixed cells, CLAN-like structures were seen in 26.5 ± 1.7% of the actin-GFP expressed PTM cells treated with DEX for 72 h. In live imaging, there was 28% CLAN-like structure formation at 72 h after DEX treatment, and the lifetime of CLAN-like structures increased after DEX treatment. The DEX-treated cells with CLAN-like structures showed less migration than DEX-treated cells without CLAN-like structures. Furthermore, the control cells (without DEX treatment) with CLAN-like structures also showed less migration than the control cells without CLAN-like structures. These results suggested that CLAN-like structure formation was correlated with cell migration in TM cells. Live cell imaging of the actin cytoskeleton provides valuable information on the actin dynamics in TM

  16. 78 FR 49528 - Consolidation of Wound Care Products Containing Live Cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-08-14

    ...] Consolidation of Wound Care Products Containing Live Cells AGENCY: Food and Drug Administration, HHS. ACTION... certain wound care products containing live cells from the Center for Devices and Radiological Health... CDRH and CBER. FDA believes that as more wound care products containing live cells are developed such...

  17. Optical imaging of non-fluorescent nanoparticle probes in live cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wang, Gufeng; Stender, Anthony S.; Sun, Wei; and Fang, Ning

    2009-12-17

    Precise imaging of cellular and subcellular structures and dynamic processes in live cells is crucial for fundamental research in life sciences and in medical applications. Non-fluorescent nanoparticles are an important type of optical probe used in live-cell imaging due to their photostability, large optical cross-sections, and low toxicity. Here, we provide an overview of recent developments in the optical imaging of non-fluorescent nanoparticle probes in live cells.

  18. Induction of Live Cell Phagocytosis by a Specific Combination of Inflammatory Stimuli

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Takamasa Ishidome

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Conditions of severe hyper-inflammation can lead to uncontrolled activation of macrophages, and the ensuing phagocytosis of live cells. However, relationships between inflammatory stimuli and uncontrolled phagocytosis of live cells by macrophages are poorly understood. To identify mediators of this process, we established phagocytosis assays of live cells by stimulating macrophages with CpG DNA, interferon-γ, and anti-interleukin-10 receptor antibody. In this model, various cell surface receptors were upregulated on macrophages, and phagocytosis of live cells was induced in a Rac1-dependent manner. Subsequent inhibition of the ICAM-1, VCAM-1, and both of these receptors abolished in vitro and in vivo phagocytosis of live T cells, myeloid cells, and B cells, respectively. Specifically, the reduction in lymphocyte numbers due to in vivo activation of macrophages was ameliorated in Icam-1-deficient mice. In addition, overexpression of ICAM-1 or VCAM-1 in non-phagocytic NIH3T3 cells led to active phagocytosis of live cells. These data indicate molecular mechanisms underlying live cell phagocytosis induced by hyper-inflammation, and this experimental model will be useful to clarify the pathophysiological mechanisms of hemophagocytosis and to indicate therapeutic targets.

  19. Simultaneous detection of mRNA and protein stem cell markers in live cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bao Gang

    2009-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Biological studies and medical application of stem cells often require the isolation of stem cells from a mixed cell population, including the detection of cancer stem cells in tumor tissue, and isolation of induced pluripotent stem cells after eliciting the expression of specific genes in adult cells. Here we report the detection of Oct-4 mRNA and SSEA-1 protein in live carcinoma stem cells using respectively molecular beacon and dye-labeled antibody, aiming to establish a new method for stem cells detection and isolation. Results Quantification of Oct-4 mRNA and protein in P19 mouse carcinoma stem cells using respectively RT-PCR and immunocytochemistry confirmed that their levels drastically decreased after differentiation. To visualize Oct-4 mRNA in live stem cells, molecular beacons were designed, synthesized and validated, and the detection specificity was confirmed using control studies. We found that the fluorescence signal from Oct-4-targeting molecular beacons provides a clear discrimination between undifferentiated and retinoic acid-induced differentiated cells. Using deconvolution fluorescence microscopy, Oct-4 mRNAs were found to reside on one side of the cytosol. We demonstrated that, using a combination of Oct-4 mRNA-targeting molecular beacon with SSEA-1 antibody in flow cytometric analysis, undifferentiated stem cells can be clearly distinguished from differentiated cells. We revealed that Oct-4 targeting molecular beacons do not seem to affect stem cell biology. Conclusion Molecular beacons have the potential to provide a powerful tool for highly specific detection and isolation of stem cells, including cancer stem cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS cells without disturbing cell physiology. It is advantageous to perform simultaneous detection of intracellular (mRNA and cell-surface (protein stem cell markers in flow cytometric analysis, which may lead to high detection sensitivity and efficiency.

  20. Evaluation of royal jelly as an alternative to fetal bovine serum in cell culture using cell proliferation assays and live cell imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musa, Marahaini; Nasir, Nurul Fatihah Mohamad; Thirumulu, Kannan Ponnuraj

    2014-01-01

    Royal jelly is a nutritious substance produced by the young nurse bees and contains significant amounts of proteins which are important for cell growth and proliferation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of royal jelly as an alternative to fetal bovine serum (FBS) in cell culture using cell proliferation assays and live cell imaging. MRC-5 cells were treated with various concentrations of royal jelly extract in MTT assay. The control groups were comprised of Alpha-Minimal Essential Medium (α-MEM) alone and α-MEM with 10% FBS. Subsequently, the cell proliferation was studied for 10 days using Alamar Blue assay and live cell imaging from 48 to 72 h. The population doubling time (PDT) was determined using trypan blue assay after live cell imaging. In MTT assay, 0.156 and 0.078 mg/ml of royal jelly produced higher cell viability compared to positive control group but were not significantly different (P > 0.05). In the Alamar Blue assay, 0.156 and 0.078 mg/ml of royal jelly produced greater percentage of reduction at day 3 even though no significant difference was found (P > 0.05). Based on live cell imaging, the PDT for positive, negative, 0.156 and 0.078 mg/ml of royal jelly groups were 29.09, 62.50, 41.67 and 41.67 h respectively. No significant difference was found in the PDT between all the groups (P > 0.05). Royal jelly does not exhibit similar ability like FBS to facilitate cell growth under the present test conditions.

  1. Live-cell thermometry with nitrogen vacancy centers in nanodiamonds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jayakumar, Harishankar; Fedder, Helmut; Chen, Andrew; Yang, Liudi; Li, Chenghai; Wrachtrup, Joerg; Wang, Sihong; Meriles, Carlos

    The ability to measure temperature is typically affected by a tradeoff between sensitivity and spatial resolution. Good thermometers tend to be bulky systems and hence are ill-suited for thermal sensing with high spatial localization. Conversely, the signal resulting from nanoscale temperature probes is often impacted by noise to a level where the measurement precision becomes poor. Adding to the microscopist toolbox, the nitrogen vacancy (NV) center in diamond has recently emerged as a promising platform for high-sensitivity nanoscale thermometry. Of particular interest are applications in living cells because diamond nanocrystals are biocompatible and can be chemically functionalized to target specific organelles. Here we report progress on the ability to probe and compare temperature within and between living cells using nanodiamond-hosted NV thermometry. We focus our study on cancerous cells, where atypical metabolic pathways arguably lead to changes in the way a cell generates heat, and thus on its temperature profile.

  2. Traceless affinity labeling of endogenous proteins for functional analysis in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hayashi, Takahiro; Hamachi, Itaru

    2012-09-18

    Protein labeling and imaging techniques have provided tremendous opportunities to study the structure, function, dynamics, and localization of individual proteins in the complex environment of living cells. Molecular biology-based approaches, such as GFP-fusion tags and monoclonal antibodies, have served as important tools for the visualization of individual proteins in cells. Although these techniques continue to be valuable for live cell imaging, they have a number of limitations that have only been addressed by recent progress in chemistry-based approaches. These chemical approaches benefit greatly from the smaller probe sizes that should result in fewer perturbations to proteins and to biological systems as a whole. Despite the research in this area, so far none of these labeling techniques permit labeling and imaging of selected endogenous proteins in living cells. Researchers have widely used affinity labeling, in which the protein of interest is labeled by a reactive group attached to a ligand, to identify and characterize proteins. Since the first report of affinity labeling in the early 1960s, efforts to fine-tune the chemical structures of both the reactive group and ligand have led to protein labeling with excellent target selectivity in the whole proteome of living cells. Although the chemical probes used for affinity labeling generally inactivate target proteins, this strategy holds promise as a valuable tool for the labeling and imaging of endogenous proteins in living cells and by extension in living animals. In this Account, we summarize traceless affinity labeling, a technique explored mainly in our laboratory. In our overview of the different labeling techniques, we emphasize the challenge of designing chemical probes that allow for dissociation of the affinity module (often a ligand) after the labeling reaction so that the labeled protein retains its native function. This feature distinguishes the traceless labeling approach from the traditional

  3. Live Cells Decreased Methane Production in Intestinal Content of Pigs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. L. Gong

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available An in vitro gas production technique was used in this study to elucidate the effect of two strains of active live yeast on methane (CH4 production in the large intestinal content of pigs to provide an insight to whether active live yeast could suppress CH4 production in the hindgut of pigs. Treatments used in this study include blank (no substrate and no live yeast cells, control (no live yeast cells and yeast (YST supplementation groups (supplemented with live yeast cells, YST1 or YST2. The yeast cultures contained 1.8×1010 cells per g, which were added at the rates of 0.2 mg and 0.4 mg per ml of the fermented inoculum. Large intestinal contents were collected from 2 Duroc×Landrace×Yorkshire pigs, mixed with a phosphate buffer (1:2, and incubated anaerobically at 39°C for 24 h using 500 mg substrate (dry matter (DM basis. Total gas and CH4 production decreased (p<0.05 with supplementation of yeast. The methane production reduction potential (MRP was calculated by assuming net methane concentration for the control as 100%. The MRP of yeast 2 was more than 25%. Compared with the control group, in vitro DM digestibility (IVDMD and total volatile fatty acids (VFA concentration increased (p<0.05 in 0.4 mg/ml YST1 and 0.2 mg/ml YST2 supplementation groups. Proportion of propionate, butyrate and valerate increased (p<0.05, but that of acetate decreased (p<0.05, which led to a decreased (p<0.05 acetate: propionate (A: P ratio in the both YST2 treatments and the 0.4 mg/ml YST 1 supplementation groups. Hydrogen recovery decreased (p<0.05 with yeast supplementation. Quantity of methanogenic archaea per milliliter of inoculum decreased (p<0.05 with yeast supplementation after 24 h of incubation. Our results suggest that live yeast cells suppressed in vitro CH4 production when inoculated into the large intestinal contents of pigs and shifted the fermentation pattern to favor propionate production together with an increased population of acetogenic

  4. Information management for high content live cell imaging

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    White Michael RH

    2009-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background High content live cell imaging experiments are able to track the cellular localisation of labelled proteins in multiple live cells over a time course. Experiments using high content live cell imaging will generate multiple large datasets that are often stored in an ad-hoc manner. This hinders identification of previously gathered data that may be relevant to current analyses. Whilst solutions exist for managing image data, they are primarily concerned with storage and retrieval of the images themselves and not the data derived from the images. There is therefore a requirement for an information management solution that facilitates the indexing of experimental metadata and results of high content live cell imaging experiments. Results We have designed and implemented a data model and information management solution for the data gathered through high content live cell imaging experiments. Many of the experiments to be stored measure the translocation of fluorescently labelled proteins from cytoplasm to nucleus in individual cells. The functionality of this database has been enhanced by the addition of an algorithm that automatically annotates results of these experiments with the timings of translocations and periods of any oscillatory translocations as they are uploaded to the repository. Testing has shown the algorithm to perform well with a variety of previously unseen data. Conclusion Our repository is a fully functional example of how high throughput imaging data may be effectively indexed and managed to address the requirements of end users. By implementing the automated analysis of experimental results, we have provided a clear impetus for individuals to ensure that their data forms part of that which is stored in the repository. Although focused on imaging, the solution provided is sufficiently generic to be applied to other functional proteomics and genomics experiments. The software is available from: fhttp://code.google.com/p/livecellim/

  5. Accurate live and dead bacterial cell enumeration using flow cytometry (Conference Presentation)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ou, Fang; McGoverin, Cushla; Swift, Simon; Vanholsbeeck, Frédérique

    2017-03-01

    Flow cytometry (FCM) is based on the detection of scattered light and fluorescence to identify cells with particular characteristics of interest. However most FCM cannot precisely control the flow through its interrogation point and hence the volume and concentration of the sample cannot be immediately obtained. The easiest, most reliable and inexpensive way of obtaining absolute counts with FCM is by using reference beads. We investigated a method of using FCM with reference beads to measure live and dead bacterial concentration over the range of 106 to 108 cells/mL and ratio varying from 0 to 100%. We believe we are the first to use this method for such a large cell concentration range while also establishing the effect of varying the live/dead bacteria ratios. Escherichia coli solutions with differing ratios of live:dead cells were stained with fluorescent dyes SYTO 9 and propidium iodide (PI), which label live and dead cells, respectively. Samples were measured using a LSR II Flow Cytometer (BD Biosciences); using 488 nm excitation with 20 mW power. Both SYTO 9 and PI fluorescence were collected and threshold was set to side scatter. Traditional culture-based plate count was done in parallel to the FCM analysis. The concentration of live bacteria from FCM was compared to that obtained by plate counts. Preliminary results show that the concentration of live bacteria obtained by FCM and plate counts correlate well with each other and indicates this may be extended to a wider concentration range or for studying other cell characteristics.

  6. Microencapsulating and Banking Living Cells for Cell-Based Medicine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wujie Zhang

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available A major challenge to the eventual success of the emerging cell-based medicine such as tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and cell transplantation is the limited availability of the desired cell sources. This challenge can be addressed by cell microencapsulation to overcome the undesired immune response (i.e., to achieve immunoisolation so that non-autologous cells can be used to treat human diseases, and by cell/tissue preservation to bank living cells for wide distribution to end users so that they are readily available when needed in the future. This review summarizes the status quo of research in both cell microencapsulation and banking the microencapsulated cells. It is concluded with a brief outlook of future research directions in this important field.

  7. Secretory vesicles in live cells are not free-floating but tethered to filamentous structures: A study using photonic force microscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abu-Hamdah, Rania; Cho, Won Jin; Hoerber, J.K.H.; Jena, Bhanu P.

    2006-01-01

    It is well established that actin and microtubule cytoskeletal systems are involved in organelle transport and membrane trafficking in cells. This is also true for the transport of secretory vesicles in neuroendocrine cells and neurons. It was however unclear whether secretory vesicles remain free-floating, only to associate with such cytoskeletal systems when needing transport. This hypothesis was tested using live pancreatic acinar cells in physiological buffer solutions, using the photonic force microscope (PFM). When membrane-bound secretory vesicles (0.2-1.2 μm in diameter) in live pancreatic acinar cells were trapped at the laser focus of the PFM and pulled, they were all found tethered to filamentous structures. Mild exposure of cells to nocodazole and cytochalasin B, disrupts the tether. Immunoblot analysis of isolated secretory vesicles, further demonstrated the association of actin, myosin V, and kinesin. These studies demonstrate for the first time that secretory vesicles in live pancreatic acinar cells are tethered and not free-floating, suggesting that following vesicle biogenesis, they are placed on their own railroad track, ready to be transported to their final destination within the cell when required. This makes sense, since precision and regulation are the hallmarks of all cellular process, and therefore would hold true for the transport and localization of subcellular organelles such as secretory vesicles

  8. Secretory vesicles in live cells are not free-floating but tethered to filamentous structures: A study using photonic force microscopy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Abu-Hamdah, Rania [Department of Physiology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, 5245 Scott Hall, 540 E. Canfield, Detroit, MI 48201 (United States); Cho, Won Jin [Department of Physiology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, 5245 Scott Hall, 540 E. Canfield, Detroit, MI 48201 (United States); Hoerber, J.K.H. [Department of Physics, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD (United Kingdom); Jena, Bhanu P. [Department of Physiology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, 5245 Scott Hall, 540 E. Canfield, Detroit, MI 48201 (United States)]. E-mail: bjena@med.wayne.edu

    2006-06-15

    It is well established that actin and microtubule cytoskeletal systems are involved in organelle transport and membrane trafficking in cells. This is also true for the transport of secretory vesicles in neuroendocrine cells and neurons. It was however unclear whether secretory vesicles remain free-floating, only to associate with such cytoskeletal systems when needing transport. This hypothesis was tested using live pancreatic acinar cells in physiological buffer solutions, using the photonic force microscope (PFM). When membrane-bound secretory vesicles (0.2-1.2 {mu}m in diameter) in live pancreatic acinar cells were trapped at the laser focus of the PFM and pulled, they were all found tethered to filamentous structures. Mild exposure of cells to nocodazole and cytochalasin B, disrupts the tether. Immunoblot analysis of isolated secretory vesicles, further demonstrated the association of actin, myosin V, and kinesin. These studies demonstrate for the first time that secretory vesicles in live pancreatic acinar cells are tethered and not free-floating, suggesting that following vesicle biogenesis, they are placed on their own railroad track, ready to be transported to their final destination within the cell when required. This makes sense, since precision and regulation are the hallmarks of all cellular process, and therefore would hold true for the transport and localization of subcellular organelles such as secretory vesicles.

  9. Living with a diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer: patients' lived experiences.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    McCarthy, Ita

    2012-01-31

    The aim of this study was to explore patients\\' experience of living with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients diagnosed with NSCLC know that their treatment is not with curative intent and can expect distressing symptoms. In this phenomenological study, six adults with a diagnosis of NSCLC were interviewed. Data was analysed guided by van Manen\\'s six-step process. Four main themes were interpreted: \\'Maintaining my life\\'; \\'The enemy within\\'; \\'Staying on the train\\

  10. Watch Out for the “Living Dead”: Cell-Free Enzymes and Their Fate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Federico Baltar

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Microbes are the engines driving biogeochemical cycles. Microbial extracellular enzymatic activities (EEAs are the “gatekeepers” of the carbon cycle. The total EEA is the sum of cell-bound (i.e., cell-attached, and dissolved (i.e., cell-free enzyme activities. Cell-free enzymes make up a substantial proportion (up to 100% of the total marine EEA. Although we are learning more about how microbial diversity and function (including total EEA will be affected by environmental changes, little is known about what factors control the importance of the abundant cell-free enzymes. Since cell-attached EEAs are linked to the cell, their fate will likely be linked to the factors controlling the cell’s fate. In contrast, cell-free enzymes belong to a kind of “living dead” realm because they are not attached to a living cell but still are able to perform their function away from the cell; and as such, the factors controlling their activity and fate might differ from those affecting cell-attached enzymes. This article aims to place cell-free EEA into the wider context of hydrolysis of organic matter, deal with recent studies assessing what controls the production, activity and lifetime of cell-free EEA, and what their fate might be in response to environmental stressors. This perspective article advocates the need to go “beyond the living things,” studying the response of cells/organisms to different stressors, but also to study cell-free enzymes, in order to fully constrain the future and evolution of marine biogeochemical cycles.

  11. Watch Out for the “Living Dead”: Cell-Free Enzymes and Their Fate

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baltar, Federico

    2018-01-01

    Microbes are the engines driving biogeochemical cycles. Microbial extracellular enzymatic activities (EEAs) are the “gatekeepers” of the carbon cycle. The total EEA is the sum of cell-bound (i.e., cell-attached), and dissolved (i.e., cell-free) enzyme activities. Cell-free enzymes make up a substantial proportion (up to 100%) of the total marine EEA. Although we are learning more about how microbial diversity and function (including total EEA) will be affected by environmental changes, little is known about what factors control the importance of the abundant cell-free enzymes. Since cell-attached EEAs are linked to the cell, their fate will likely be linked to the factors controlling the cell’s fate. In contrast, cell-free enzymes belong to a kind of “living dead” realm because they are not attached to a living cell but still are able to perform their function away from the cell; and as such, the factors controlling their activity and fate might differ from those affecting cell-attached enzymes. This article aims to place cell-free EEA into the wider context of hydrolysis of organic matter, deal with recent studies assessing what controls the production, activity and lifetime of cell-free EEA, and what their fate might be in response to environmental stressors. This perspective article advocates the need to go “beyond the living things,” studying the response of cells/organisms to different stressors, but also to study cell-free enzymes, in order to fully constrain the future and evolution of marine biogeochemical cycles. PMID:29354095

  12. Live-cell imaging: new avenues to investigate retinal regeneration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manuela Lahne

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Sensing and responding to our environment requires functional neurons that act in concert. Neuronal cell loss resulting from degenerative diseases cannot be replaced in humans, causing a functional impairment to integrate and/or respond to sensory cues. In contrast, zebrafish (Danio rerio possess an endogenous capacity to regenerate lost neurons. Here, we will focus on the processes that lead to neuronal regeneration in the zebrafish retina. Dying retinal neurons release a damage signal, tumor necrosis factor α, which induces the resident radial glia, the Müller glia, to reprogram and re-enter the cell cycle. The Müller glia divide asymmetrically to produce a Müller glia that exits the cell cycle and a neuronal progenitor cell. The arising neuronal progenitor cells undergo several rounds of cell divisions before they migrate to the site of damage to differentiate into the neuronal cell types that were lost. Molecular and immunohistochemical studies have predominantly provided insight into the mechanisms that regulate retinal regeneration. However, many processes during retinal regeneration are dynamic and require live-cell imaging to fully discern the underlying mechanisms. Recently, a multiphoton imaging approach of adult zebrafish retinal cultures was developed. We will discuss the use of live-cell imaging, the currently available tools and those that need to be developed to advance our knowledge on major open questions in the field of retinal regeneration.

  13. Direct Visualization of De novo Lipogenesis in Single Living Cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Junjie; Cheng, Ji-Xin

    2014-10-01

    Increased de novo lipogenesis is being increasingly recognized as a hallmark of cancer. Despite recent advances in fluorescence microscopy, autoradiography and mass spectrometry, direct observation of de novo lipogenesis in living systems remains to be challenging. Here, by coupling stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy with isotope labeled glucose, we were able to trace the dynamic metabolism of glucose in single living cells with high spatial-temporal resolution. As the first direct visualization, we observed that glucose was largely utilized for lipid synthesis in pancreatic cancer cells, which occurs at a much lower rate in immortalized normal pancreatic epithelial cells. By inhibition of glycolysis and fatty acid synthase (FAS), the key enzyme for fatty acid synthesis, we confirmed the deuterium labeled lipids in cancer cells were from de novo lipid synthesis. Interestingly, we also found that prostate cancer cells exhibit relatively lower level of de novo lipogenesis, but higher fatty acid uptake compared to pancreatic cancer cells. Together, our results demonstrate a valuable tool to study dynamic lipid metabolism in cancer and other disorders.

  14. Live cell CRISPR-imaging in plants reveals dynamic telomere movements

    KAUST Repository

    Dreissig, Steven

    2017-05-16

    Elucidating the spatio-temporal organization of the genome inside the nucleus is imperative to understand the regulation of genes and non-coding sequences during development and environmental changes. Emerging techniques of chromatin imaging promise to bridge the long-standing gap between sequencing studies which reveal genomic information and imaging studies that provide spatial and temporal information of defined genomic regions. Here, we demonstrate such an imaging technique based on two orthologues of the bacterial CRISPR-Cas9 system. By fusing eGFP/mRuby2 to the catalytically inactive version of Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus Cas9, we show robust visualization of telomere repeats in live leaf cells of Nicotiana benthamiana. By tracking the dynamics of telomeres visualized by CRISPR-dCas9, we reveal dynamic telomere movements of up to 2 μm within 30 minutes during interphase. Furthermore, we show that CRISPR-dCas9 can be combined with fluorescence-labelled proteins to visualize DNA-protein interactions in vivo. By simultaneously using two dCas9 orthologues, we pave the way for imaging of multiple genomic loci in live plants cells. CRISPR-imaging bears the potential to significantly improve our understanding of the dynamics of chromosomes in live plant cells.

  15. Detection and analysis of human serum albumin nanoparticles within phagocytic cells at the resolution of individual live cell or single 3D multicellular spheroid

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Afrimzon, Elena; Zurgil, Naomi; Sobolev, Maria; Shafran, Yana [Bar-Ilan University, The Biophysical Interdisciplinary Schottenstein Center for the Research and Technology of the Cellome (Israel); Langer, Klaus; Zlatev, Iavor [Westfälischen Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Institut für Pharmazeutische Technologie und Biopharmazie (Germany); Wronski, Robert; Windisch, Manfred [QPS Austria GmbH (Austria); Briesen, Hagen von [Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT, Department of Cell Biology & Applied Virology (Germany); Schmidt, Reinhold [Medical University of Graz, Department of Neurology (Austria); Pietrzik, Claus [University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Institute of Pathobiochemistry (Germany); Deutsch, Mordechai, E-mail: motti.jsc@gmail.com [Bar-Ilan University, The Biophysical Interdisciplinary Schottenstein Center for the Research and Technology of the Cellome (Israel)

    2015-12-15

    Since nanoparticles (NPs) have shown great potential in various biomedical applications, live cell response to NPs should be thoroughly explored prior to their in vivo use. In the current study, live cell array (LCA) methodology and unique cell-based assays were used to study the interaction of magnetite (HSA-Mag NP) loaded human serum albumin NPs with phagocytic cells. The LCA enabled cell culturing during HSA-Mag NP accumulation and monolayer or spheroid formation, concomitantly with on-line monitoring of NP internalization. These platforms were also utilized for imaging intercellular links between living cells preloaded with HSA-Mag NP in 2D and 3D resolution. HSA-Mag NP uptake by cells was quantified by imaging, and analyzed using time-resolved measurements. Image analysis of the individual cells in cell populations showed accumulation of HSA-Mag NP by promonocytes and glial cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. High variability of NP accumulation in individual cells within cell populations, as well as cell subgroups, was evident in both cell types. Following 24 h interaction, uptake of HSA-Mag NP was about 10 times more efficient in glial cells than in activated promonocytes. The presented assays may facilitate detection and analysis of the amount of NPs within individual cells, as well as the rate of NP accumulation and processing in different subsets of living cells. Such data are crucial for estimating predicted drug dosage delivered by NPs, as well as to study possible mechanisms for NP interference with live cells.

  16. Raman tweezers spectroscopy of live, single red and white blood cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aseefhali Bankapur

    Full Text Available An optical trap has been combined with a Raman spectrometer to make high-resolution measurements of Raman spectra of optically-immobilized, single, live red (RBC and white blood cells (WBC under physiological conditions. Tightly-focused, near infrared wavelength light (1064 nm is utilized for trapping of single cells and 785 nm light is used for Raman excitation at low levels of incident power (few mW. Raman spectra of RBC recorded using this high-sensitivity, dual-wavelength apparatus has enabled identification of several additional lines; the hitherto-unreported lines originate purely from hemoglobin molecules. Raman spectra of single granulocytes and lymphocytes are interpreted on the basis of standard protein and nucleic acid vibrational spectroscopy data. The richness of the measured spectrum illustrates that Raman studies of live cells in suspension are more informative than conventional micro-Raman studies where the cells are chemically bound to a glass cover slip.

  17. Autofluorescence-Free Live-Cell Imaging Using Terbium Nanoparticles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cardoso Dos Santos, M; Goetz, J; Bartenlian, H; Wong, K-L; Charbonnière, L J; Hildebrandt, N

    2018-04-18

    Fluorescent nanoparticles (NPs) have become irreplaceable tools for advanced cellular and subcellular imaging. While very bright NPs require excitation with UV or visible light, which can create strong autofluorescence of biological components, NIR-excitable NPs without autofluorescence issues exhibit much lower brightness. Here, we show the application of a new type of surface-photosensitized terbium NPs (Tb-NPs) for autofluorescence-free intracellular imaging in live HeLa cells. The combination of exceptionally high brightness, high photostability, and long photoluminecence (PL) lifetimes for highly efficient suppression of the short-lived autofluorescence allowed for time-gated PL imaging of intracellular vesicles over 72 h without toxicity and at extremely low Tb-NP concentrations down to 12 pM. Detection of highly resolved long-lifetime (ms) PL decay curves from small (∼10 μm 2 ) areas within single cells within a few seconds emphasized the unprecedented photophysical properties of Tb-NPs for live-cell imaging that extend well beyond currently available nanometric imaging agents.

  18. Direct and dynamic detection of HIV-1 in living cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jonas Helma

    Full Text Available In basic and applied HIV research, reliable detection of viral components is crucial to monitor progression of infection. While it is routine to detect structural viral proteins in vitro for diagnostic purposes, it previously remained impossible to directly and dynamically visualize HIV in living cells without genetic modification of the virus. Here, we describe a novel fluorescent biosensor to dynamically trace HIV-1 morphogenesis in living cells. We generated a camelid single domain antibody that specifically binds the HIV-1 capsid protein (CA at subnanomolar affinity and fused it to fluorescent proteins. The resulting fluorescent chromobody specifically recognizes the CA-harbouring HIV-1 Gag precursor protein in living cells and is applicable in various advanced light microscopy systems. Confocal live cell microscopy and super-resolution microscopy allowed detection and dynamic tracing of individual virion assemblies at the plasma membrane. The analysis of subcellular binding kinetics showed cytoplasmic antigen recognition and incorporation into virion assembly sites. Finally, we demonstrate the use of this new reporter in automated image analysis, providing a robust tool for cell-based HIV research.

  19. Imaging Proteolysis by Living Human Breast Cancer Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mansoureh Sameni

    2000-01-01

    Full Text Available Malignant progression is accompanied by degradation of extracellular matrix proteins. Here we describe a novel confocal assay in which we can observe proteolysis by living human breast cancer cells (BT20 and BT549 through the use of quenchedfluorescent protein substrates. Degradation thus was imaged, by confocal optical sectioning, as an accumulation of fluorescent products. With the BT20 cells, fluorescence was localized to pericellular focal areas that coincide with pits in the underlying matrix. In contrast, fluorescence was localized to intracellular vesicles in the BT549 cells, vesicles that also label for lysosomal markers. Neither intracellular nor pericellular fluorescence was observed in the BT549 cells in the presence of cytochalasin B, suggesting that degradation occurred intracellularly and was dependent on endocytic uptake of substrate. In the presence of a cathepsin 13-selective cysteine protease inhibitor, intracellular fluorescence was decreased ~90% and pericellular fluorescence decreased 67% to 96%, depending on the protein substrate. Matrix metallo protease inhibitors reduced pericellular fluorescence ~50%, i.e., comparably to a serine and a broad spectrum cysteine protease inhibitor. Our results suggest that: 1 a proteolytic cascade participates in pericellular digestion of matrix proteins by living human breast cancer cells, and 2 the cysteine protease cathepsin B participates in both pericellular and intracellular digestion of matrix proteins by living human breast cancer cells.

  20. High-frequency microrheology reveals cytoskeleton dynamics in living cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rigato, Annafrancesca; Miyagi, Atsushi; Scheuring, Simon; Rico, Felix

    2017-08-01

    Living cells are viscoelastic materials, dominated by an elastic response on timescales longer than a millisecond. On shorter timescales, the dynamics of individual cytoskeleton filaments are expected to emerge, but active microrheology measurements on cells accessing this regime are scarce. Here, we develop high-frequency microrheology experiments to probe the viscoelastic response of living cells from 1 Hz to 100 kHz. We report the viscoelasticity of different cell types under cytoskeletal drug treatments. On previously inaccessible short timescales, cells exhibit rich viscoelastic responses that depend on the state of the cytoskeleton. Benign and malignant cancer cells revealed remarkably different scaling laws at high frequencies, providing a unique mechanical fingerprint. Microrheology over a wide dynamic range--up to the frequency characterizing the molecular components--provides a mechanistic understanding of cell mechanics.

  1. Biomimetic silica encapsultation of living cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaroch, David Benjamin

    Living cells perform complex chemical processes on size and time scales that artificial systems cannot match. Cells respond dynamically to their environment, acting as biological sensors, factories, and drug delivery devices. To facilitate the use of living systems in engineered constructs, we have developed several new approaches to create stable protective microenvironments by forming bioinspired cell-membrane-specific silica-based encapsulants. These include vapor phase deposition of silica gels, use of endogenous membrane proteins and polysaccharides as a site for silica nucleation and polycondensation in a saturated environment, and protein templated ordered silica shell formation. We demonstrate silica layer formation at the surface of pluripotent stem-like cells, bacterial biofilms, and primary murine and human pancreatic islets. Materials are characterized by AFM, SEM and EDS. Viability assays confirm cell survival, and metabolite flux measurements demonstrate normal function and no major diffusion limitations. Real time PCR mRNA analysis indicates encapsulated islets express normal levels of genetic markers for β-cells and insulin production. The silica glass encapsulant produces a secondary bone like calcium phosphate mineral layer upon exposure to media. Such bioactive materials can improve device integration with surrounding tissue upon implantation. Given the favorable insulin response, bioactivity, and long-term viability observed in silica-coated islets, we are currently testing the encapsulant's ability to prevent immune system recognition of foreign transplants for the treatment of diabetes. Such hybrid silica-cellular constructs have a wide range of industrial, environmental, and medical applications.

  2. Design of microdevices for long-term live cell imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, Huaying; Nordon, Robert E; Rosengarten, Gary; Li, Musen

    2012-01-01

    Advances in fluorescent live cell imaging provide high-content information that relates a cell's life events to its ancestors. An important requirement to track clonal growth and development is the retention of motile cells derived from an ancestor within the same microscopic field of view for days to weeks, while recording fluorescence images and controlling the mechanical and biochemical microenvironments that regulate cell growth and differentiation. The aim of this study was to design a microwell device for long-term, time-lapse imaging of motile cells with the specific requirements of (a) inoculating devices with an average of one cell per well and (b) retaining progeny of cells within a single microscopic field of view for extended growth periods. A two-layer PDMS microwell culture device consisting of a parallel-plate flow cell bonded on top of a microwell array was developed for cell capture and clonal culture. Cell deposition statistics were related to microwell geometry (plate separation and well depth) and the Reynolds number. Computational fluid dynamics was used to simulate flow in the microdevices as well as cell–fluid interactions. Analysis of the forces acting upon a cell was used to predict cell docking zones, which were confirmed by experimental observations. Cell–fluid dynamic interactions are important considerations for design of microdevices for long-term, live cell imaging. The analysis of force and torque balance provides a reasonable approximation for cell displacement forces. It is computationally less intensive compared to simulation of cell trajectories, and can be applied to a wide range of microdevice geometries to predict the cell docking behavior. (paper)

  3. In Cell Footprinting Coupled with Mass Spectrometry for the Structural Analysis of Proteins in Live Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Espino, Jessica A; Mali, Vishaal S; Jones, Lisa M

    2015-08-04

    Protein footprinting coupled with mass spectrometry has become a widely used tool for the study of protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions and protein conformational change. These methods provide residue-level analysis on protein interaction sites and have been successful in studying proteins in vitro. The extension of these methods for in cell footprinting would open an avenue to study proteins that are not amenable for in vitro studies and would probe proteins in their native environment. Here we describe the application of an oxidative-based footprinting approach inside cells in which hydroxyl radicals are used to oxidatively modify proteins. Mass spectrometry is used to detect modification sites and to calculate modification levels. The method is probing biologically relevant proteins in live cells, and proteins in various cellular compartments can be oxdiatively modified. Several different amino acid residues are modified making the method a general labeling strategy for the study of a variety of proteins. Further, comparison of the extent of oxidative modification with solvent accessible surface area reveals the method successfully probes solvent accessibility. This marks the first time protein footprinting has been performed in live cells.

  4. Melanosomal dynamics assessed with a live-cell fluorescent melanosomal marker.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jan M Bruder

    Full Text Available Melanocytes present in skin and other organs synthesize and store melanin pigment within membrane-delimited organelles called melanosomes. Exposure of human skin to ultraviolet radiation (UV stimulates melanin production in melanosomes, followed by transfer of melanosomes from melanocytes to neighboring keratinocytes. Melanosomal function is critical for protecting skin against UV radiation, but the mechanisms underlying melanosomal movement and transfer are not well understood. Here we report a novel fluorescent melanosomal marker, which we used to measure real-time melanosomal dynamics in live human epidermal melanocytes (HEMs and transfer in melanocyte-keratinocyte co-cultures. A fluorescent fusion protein of Ocular Albinism 1 (OA1 localized to melanosomes in both B16-F1 cells and HEMs, and its expression did not significantly alter melanosomal distribution. Live-cell tracking of OA1-GFP-tagged melanosomes revealed a bimodal kinetic profile, with melanosomes exhibiting combinations of slow and fast movement. We also found that exposure to UV radiation increased the fraction of melanosomes exhibiting fast versus slow movement. In addition, using OA1-GFP in live co-cultures, we monitored melanosomal transfer using time-lapse microscopy. These results highlight OA1-GFP as a specific and effective melanosomal marker for live-cell studies, reveal new aspects of melanosomal dynamics and transfer, and are relevant to understanding the skin's physiological response to UV radiation.

  5. A New Nanobody-Based Biosensor to Study Endogenous PARP1 In Vitro and in Live Human Cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nüske, Stefan; Scholz, Armin M.; Bogner, Jacqueline; Ruf, Benjamin; Zolghadr, Kourosh; Drexler, Sophie E.; Drexler, Guido A.; Girst, Stefanie; Greubel, Christoph; Reindl, Judith; Siebenwirth, Christian; Romer, Tina; Friedl, Anna A.; Rothbauer, Ulrich

    2016-01-01

    Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) is a key player in DNA repair, genomic stability and cell survival and it emerges as a highly relevant target for cancer therapies. To deepen our understanding of PARP biology and mechanisms of action of PARP1-targeting anti-cancer compounds, we generated a novel PARP1-affinity reagent, active both in vitro and in live cells. This PARP1-biosensor is based on a PARP1-specific single-domain antibody fragment (~ 15 kDa), termed nanobody, which recognizes the N-terminus of human PARP1 with nanomolar affinity. In proteomic approaches, immobilized PARP1 nanobody facilitates quantitative immunoprecipitation of functional, endogenous PARP1 from cellular lysates. For cellular studies, we engineered an intracellularly functional PARP1 chromobody by combining the nanobody coding sequence with a fluorescent protein sequence. By following the chromobody signal, we were for the first time able to monitor the recruitment of endogenous PARP1 to DNA damage sites in live cells. Moreover, tracing of the sub-nuclear translocation of the chromobody signal upon treatment of human cells with chemical substances enables real-time profiling of active compounds in high content imaging. Due to its ability to perform as a biosensor at the endogenous level of the PARP1 enzyme, the novel PARP1 nanobody is a unique and versatile tool for basic and applied studies of PARP1 biology and DNA repair. PMID:26950694

  6. A New Nanobody-Based Biosensor to Study Endogenous PARP1 In Vitro and in Live Human Cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea Buchfellner

    Full Text Available Poly(ADP-ribose polymerase 1 (PARP1 is a key player in DNA repair, genomic stability and cell survival and it emerges as a highly relevant target for cancer therapies. To deepen our understanding of PARP biology and mechanisms of action of PARP1-targeting anti-cancer compounds, we generated a novel PARP1-affinity reagent, active both in vitro and in live cells. This PARP1-biosensor is based on a PARP1-specific single-domain antibody fragment (~ 15 kDa, termed nanobody, which recognizes the N-terminus of human PARP1 with nanomolar affinity. In proteomic approaches, immobilized PARP1 nanobody facilitates quantitative immunoprecipitation of functional, endogenous PARP1 from cellular lysates. For cellular studies, we engineered an intracellularly functional PARP1 chromobody by combining the nanobody coding sequence with a fluorescent protein sequence. By following the chromobody signal, we were for the first time able to monitor the recruitment of endogenous PARP1 to DNA damage sites in live cells. Moreover, tracing of the sub-nuclear translocation of the chromobody signal upon treatment of human cells with chemical substances enables real-time profiling of active compounds in high content imaging. Due to its ability to perform as a biosensor at the endogenous level of the PARP1 enzyme, the novel PARP1 nanobody is a unique and versatile tool for basic and applied studies of PARP1 biology and DNA repair.

  7. A New Nanobody-Based Biosensor to Study Endogenous PARP1 In Vitro and in Live Human Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buchfellner, Andrea; Yurlova, Larisa; Nüske, Stefan; Scholz, Armin M; Bogner, Jacqueline; Ruf, Benjamin; Zolghadr, Kourosh; Drexler, Sophie E; Drexler, Guido A; Girst, Stefanie; Greubel, Christoph; Reindl, Judith; Siebenwirth, Christian; Romer, Tina; Friedl, Anna A; Rothbauer, Ulrich

    2016-01-01

    Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1) is a key player in DNA repair, genomic stability and cell survival and it emerges as a highly relevant target for cancer therapies. To deepen our understanding of PARP biology and mechanisms of action of PARP1-targeting anti-cancer compounds, we generated a novel PARP1-affinity reagent, active both in vitro and in live cells. This PARP1-biosensor is based on a PARP1-specific single-domain antibody fragment (~ 15 kDa), termed nanobody, which recognizes the N-terminus of human PARP1 with nanomolar affinity. In proteomic approaches, immobilized PARP1 nanobody facilitates quantitative immunoprecipitation of functional, endogenous PARP1 from cellular lysates. For cellular studies, we engineered an intracellularly functional PARP1 chromobody by combining the nanobody coding sequence with a fluorescent protein sequence. By following the chromobody signal, we were for the first time able to monitor the recruitment of endogenous PARP1 to DNA damage sites in live cells. Moreover, tracing of the sub-nuclear translocation of the chromobody signal upon treatment of human cells with chemical substances enables real-time profiling of active compounds in high content imaging. Due to its ability to perform as a biosensor at the endogenous level of the PARP1 enzyme, the novel PARP1 nanobody is a unique and versatile tool for basic and applied studies of PARP1 biology and DNA repair.

  8. A simple optical fiber device for quantitative fluorescence microscopy of single living cells

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Graft, M.; van Graft, Marja; Oosterhuis, B.; Oosterhuis, Bernard; van der Werf, Kees; de Grooth, B.G.; Greve, Jan

    1993-01-01

    simple and relatively inexpensive system is described for obtaining quantitative fluorescence measurements on single living cells loaded with a fluorescent probe to study cell physiological processes. The light emitted from the fluorescent cells is captured by and transported through an optical

  9. A hybrid bio-jetting approach for directly engineering living cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kwok, Albert; Irvine, Scott; Arumuganathar, Sumathy; Jayasinghe, Suwan N; McEwan, Jean R

    2008-01-01

    This paper reports developments on a hybrid cell-engineering protocol coupling both bio-electrosprays and aerodynamically assisted bio-jets for process-handling living cells. The current work demonstrates the ability to couple these two cell-jetting protocols for handling a wide range of cells for deposition. The post-treated cells are assessed for their viability by way of flow cytometry, which illustrates a significant population of viable cells post-treatment in comparison to those controls. This work is the first example of coupling these two protocols for the process handling of living cells. The hybrid protocol demonstrates the achievement of stable cone jetting of a cellular suspension in the single-needle configuration which was previously unachieved with single-needle bio-electrosprays. Furthermore the living cells explored in these investigations expressed GFP, thus demonstrating the ability to couple gene therapy with this hybrid protocol. Hence, this approach could one day be explored for building biologically viable tissues incorporating a therapeutic payload for combating a range of cellular/tissue-based pathologies

  10. In vivo MRI discrimination between live and lysed iron-labelled cells using balanced steady state free precession

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ribot, E.J.; Foster, P.J.

    2012-01-01

    The goal of this study was to evaluate the ability of balanced steady state free precession (b-SSFP) magnetic resonance imaging sequence to distinguish between live and lysed iron-labelled cells. Human breast cancer cells were labelled with iron oxide nanoparticles. Cells were lysed using sonication. Imaging was performed at 3 T. The timing parameters for b-SSFP and the number of iron-labelled cells in samples were varied to optimise the b-SSFP signal difference between live and lysed iron-labelled cell samples. For in vivo experiments, cells were mixed with Matrigel and implanted into nude mice. Three mice implanted with live labelled cancer cells were irradiated to validate this method. Lysed iron-labelled cells have a significantly higher signal compared with live, intact iron-labelled cells in bSSFP images. The contrast between live and dead cells can be maximised by careful optimisation of timing parameters. A change in the b-SSFP signal was measured 6 days after irradiation, reflecting cell death in vivo. Histology confirmed the presence of dead cells in the implant. Our results show that the b-SSFP sequence can be optimised to allow for the discrimination of live iron-labelled cells and lysed iron-labelled cells in vitro and in vivo. (orig.)

  11. In vivo MRI discrimination between live and lysed iron-labelled cells using balanced steady state free precession

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ribot, E.J. [University of Western Ontario, Imaging Research Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute, London, ON (Canada); Foster, P.J. [University of Western Ontario, Imaging Research Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute, London, ON (Canada); University of Western Ontario, Department of Medical Biophysics, London, ON (Canada)

    2012-09-15

    The goal of this study was to evaluate the ability of balanced steady state free precession (b-SSFP) magnetic resonance imaging sequence to distinguish between live and lysed iron-labelled cells. Human breast cancer cells were labelled with iron oxide nanoparticles. Cells were lysed using sonication. Imaging was performed at 3 T. The timing parameters for b-SSFP and the number of iron-labelled cells in samples were varied to optimise the b-SSFP signal difference between live and lysed iron-labelled cell samples. For in vivo experiments, cells were mixed with Matrigel and implanted into nude mice. Three mice implanted with live labelled cancer cells were irradiated to validate this method. Lysed iron-labelled cells have a significantly higher signal compared with live, intact iron-labelled cells in bSSFP images. The contrast between live and dead cells can be maximised by careful optimisation of timing parameters. A change in the b-SSFP signal was measured 6 days after irradiation, reflecting cell death in vivo. Histology confirmed the presence of dead cells in the implant. Our results show that the b-SSFP sequence can be optimised to allow for the discrimination of live iron-labelled cells and lysed iron-labelled cells in vitro and in vivo. (orig.)

  12. Synthetic analog computation in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daniel, Ramiz; Rubens, Jacob R; Sarpeshkar, Rahul; Lu, Timothy K

    2013-05-30

    A central goal of synthetic biology is to achieve multi-signal integration and processing in living cells for diagnostic, therapeutic and biotechnology applications. Digital logic has been used to build small-scale circuits, but other frameworks may be needed for efficient computation in the resource-limited environments of cells. Here we demonstrate that synthetic analog gene circuits can be engineered to execute sophisticated computational functions in living cells using just three transcription factors. Such synthetic analog gene circuits exploit feedback to implement logarithmically linear sensing, addition, ratiometric and power-law computations. The circuits exhibit Weber's law behaviour as in natural biological systems, operate over a wide dynamic range of up to four orders of magnitude and can be designed to have tunable transfer functions. Our circuits can be composed to implement higher-order functions that are well described by both intricate biochemical models and simple mathematical functions. By exploiting analog building-block functions that are already naturally present in cells, this approach efficiently implements arithmetic operations and complex functions in the logarithmic domain. Such circuits may lead to new applications for synthetic biology and biotechnology that require complex computations with limited parts, need wide-dynamic-range biosensing or would benefit from the fine control of gene expression.

  13. Labeling RNAs in Live Cells Using Malachite Green Aptamer Scaffolds as Fluorescent Probes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yerramilli, V Siddartha; Kim, Kyung Hyuk

    2018-03-16

    RNAs mediate many different processes that are central to cellular function. The ability to quantify or image RNAs in live cells is very useful in elucidating such functions of RNA. RNA aptamer-fluorogen systems have been increasingly used in labeling RNAs in live cells. Here, we use the malachite green aptamer (MGA), an RNA aptamer that can specifically bind to malachite green (MG) dye and induces it to emit far-red fluorescence signals. Previous studies on MGA showed a potential for the use of MGA for genetically tagging other RNA molecules in live cells. However, these studies also exhibited low fluorescence signals and high background noise. Here we constructed and tested RNA scaffolds containing multiple tandem repeats of MGA as a strategy to increase the brightness of the MGA aptamer-fluorogen system as well as to make the system fluoresce when tagging various RNA molecules, in live cells. We demonstrate that our MGA scaffolds can induce fluorescence signals by up to ∼20-fold compared to the basal level as a genetic tag for other RNA molecules. We also show that our scaffolds function reliably as genetically encoded fluorescent tags for mRNAs of fluorescent proteins and other RNA aptamers.

  14. Live Cell Imaging of Alphaherpes Virus Anterograde Transport and Spread

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, Matthew P.; Kratchmarov, Radomir; Enquist, Lynn W.

    2013-01-01

    Advances in live cell fluorescence microscopy techniques, as well as the construction of recombinant viral strains that express fluorescent fusion proteins have enabled real-time visualization of transport and spread of alphaherpes virus infection of neurons. The utility of novel fluorescent fusion proteins to viral membrane, tegument, and capsids, in conjunction with live cell imaging, identified viral particle assemblies undergoing transport within axons. Similar tools have been successfully employed for analyses of cell-cell spread of viral particles to quantify the number and diversity of virions transmitted between cells. Importantly, the techniques of live cell imaging of anterograde transport and spread produce a wealth of information including particle transport velocities, distributions of particles, and temporal analyses of protein localization. Alongside classical viral genetic techniques, these methodologies have provided critical insights into important mechanistic questions. In this article we describe in detail the imaging methods that were developed to answer basic questions of alphaherpes virus transport and spread. PMID:23978901

  15. Imaging proteolytic activity in live cells and animal models.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stefanie Galbán

    Full Text Available In addition to their degradative role in protein turnover, proteases play a key role as positive or negative regulators of signal transduction pathways and therefore their dysregulation contributes to many disease states. Regulatory roles of proteases include their hormone-like role in triggering G protein-coupled signaling (Protease-Activated-Receptors; their role in shedding of ligands such as EGF, Notch and Fas; and their role in signaling events that lead to apoptotic cell death. Dysregulated activation of apoptosis by the caspase family of proteases has been linked to diseases such as cancer, autoimmunity and inflammation. In an effort to better understand the role of proteases in health and disease, a luciferase biosensor is described which can quantitatively report proteolytic activity in live cells and mouse models. The biosensor, hereafter referred to as GloSensor Caspase 3/7 has a robust signal to noise (50-100 fold and dynamic range such that it can be used to screen for pharmacologically active compounds in high throughput campaigns as well as to study cell signaling in rare cell populations such as isolated cancer stem cells. The biosensor can also be used in the context of genetically engineered mouse models of human disease wherein conditional expression using the Cre/loxP technology can be implemented to investigate the role of a specific protease in living subjects. While the regulation of apoptosis by caspase's was used as an example in these studies, biosensors to study additional proteases involved in the regulation of normal and pathological cellular processes can be designed using the concepts presented herein.

  16. Live cell imaging combined with high-energy single-ion microbeam

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Na; Du, Guanghua; Liu, Wenjing; Guo, Jinlong; Wu, Ruqun; Chen, Hao; Wei, Junzhe

    2016-03-01

    DNA strand breaks can lead to cell carcinogenesis or cell death if not repaired rapidly and efficiently. An online live cell imaging system was established at the high energy microbeam facility at the Institute of Modern Physics to study early and fast cellular response to DNA damage after high linear energy transfer ion radiation. The HT1080 cells expressing XRCC1-RFP were irradiated with single high energy nickel ions, and time-lapse images of the irradiated cells were obtained online. The live cell imaging analysis shows that strand-break repair protein XRCC1 was recruited to the ion hit position within 20 s in the cells and formed bright foci in the cell nucleus. The fast recruitment of XRCC1 at the ion hits reached a maximum at about 200 s post-irradiation and then was followed by a slower release into the nucleoplasm. The measured dual-exponential kinetics of XRCC1 protein are consistent with the proposed consecutive reaction model, and the measurements obtained that the reaction rate constant of the XRCC1 recruitment to DNA strand break is 1.2 × 10-3 s-1 and the reaction rate constant of the XRCC1 release from the break-XRCC1 complex is 1.2 × 10-2 s-1.

  17. Identification and super-resolution imaging of ligand-activated receptor dimers in live cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winckler, Pascale; Lartigue, Lydia; Giannone, Gregory; de Giorgi, Francesca; Ichas, François; Sibarita, Jean-Baptiste; Lounis, Brahim; Cognet, Laurent

    2013-08-01

    Molecular interactions are key to many chemical and biological processes like protein function. In many signaling processes they occur in sub-cellular areas displaying nanoscale organizations and involving molecular assemblies. The nanometric dimensions and the dynamic nature of the interactions make their investigations complex in live cells. While super-resolution fluorescence microscopies offer live-cell molecular imaging with sub-wavelength resolutions, they lack specificity for distinguishing interacting molecule populations. Here we combine super-resolution microscopy and single-molecule Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) to identify dimers of receptors induced by ligand binding and provide super-resolved images of their membrane distribution in live cells. By developing a two-color universal-Point-Accumulation-In-the-Nanoscale-Topography (uPAINT) method, dimers of epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFR) activated by EGF are studied at ultra-high densities, revealing preferential cell-edge sub-localization. This methodology which is specifically devoted to the study of molecules in interaction, may find other applications in biological systems where understanding of molecular organization is crucial.

  18. Model system for plant cell biology: GFP imaging in living onion epidermal cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scott, A.; Wyatt, S.; Tsou, P. L.; Robertson, D.; Allen, N. S.

    1999-01-01

    The ability to visualize organelle localization and dynamics is very useful in studying cellular physiological events. Until recently, this has been accomplished using a variety of staining methods. However, staining can give inaccurate information due to nonspecific staining, diffusion of the stain or through toxic effects. The ability to target green fluorescent protein (GFP) to various organelles allows for specific labeling of organelles in vivo. The disadvantages of GFP thus far have been the time and money involved in developing stable transformants or maintaining cell cultures for transient expression. In this paper, we present a rapid transient expression system using onion epidermal peels. We have localized GFP to various cellular compartments (including the cell wall) to illustrate the utility of this method and to visualize dynamics of these compartments. The onion epidermis has large, living, transparent cells in a monolayer, making them ideal for visualizing GFP. This method is easy and inexpensive, and it allows for testing of new GFP fusion proteins in a living tissue to determine deleterious effects and the ability to express before stable transformants are attempted.

  19. Use of an Optical Trap for Study of Host-Pathogen Interactions for Dynamic Live Cell Imaging

    OpenAIRE

    Tam, Jenny M.; Castro, Carlos E.; Heath, Robert J. W.; Mansour, Michael K.; Cardenas, Michael L.; Xavier, Ramnik J.; Lang, Matthew J.; Vyas, Jatin M.

    2011-01-01

    Dynamic live cell imaging allows direct visualization of real-time interactions between cells of the immune system1, 2; however, the lack of spatial and temporal control between the phagocytic cell and microbe has rendered focused observations into the initial interactions of host response to pathogens difficult. Historically, intercellular contact events such as phagocytosis3 have been imaged by mixing two cell types, and then continuously scanning the field-of-view to find serendipitous int...

  20. Real-Time Gene Expression Profiling of Live Shewanella Oneidensis Cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xiaoliang Sunney Xie

    2009-03-30

    steady-state distribution of protein concentration in live cells, considering that protein production occurs in random bursts with an exponentially distributed number of molecules. This model allows for the extraction of kinetic parameters of gene expression from steady-state distributions of protein concentration in a cell population, which are available from single cell data obtained by fluorescence microscopy. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 168302 (2006)]. A major objective in the Genome to Life (GtL) program is to monitor and understand the gene expression profile of a complete bacterial genome. We developed genetic and imaging methods for sensitive protein expression profiling in individual S. oneidensis cell. We have made good progress in constructing YFP-library with several hundred chromosomal fusion proteins and studied protein expression profiling in living Shewanella oneidensis cells. Fluorescence microscopy revealed the average abundance of specific proteins, as well as their noise in gene expression level across a population. We also explored ways to adapt our fluorescence measurement for other growth conditions, such as anaerobic growth.

  1. Examining live cell cultures during apoptosis by digital holographic phase imaging and Raman spectroscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khmaladze, Alexander

    2017-11-01

    Cellular apoptosis is a unique, organized series of events, leading to programmed cell death. In this work, we present a combined digital holography/Raman spectroscopy technique to study live cell cultures during apoptosis. Digital holographic microscopy measurements of live cell cultures yield information about cell shape and volume, changes to which are indicative of alterations in cell cycle and initiation of cell death mechanisms. Raman spectroscopic measurements provide complementary information about cells, such as protein, lipid and nucleic acid content, and the spectral signatures associated with structural changes in molecules. Our work indicates that the chemical changes in proteins, which were detected by Raman measurements, preceded morphological changes, which were seen with digital holographic microscopy.

  2. Merkel cells are long-lived cells whose production is stimulated by skin injury✰

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wright, Margaret C.; Logan, Gregory J.; Bolock, Alexa M.; Kubicki, Adam C.; Hemphill, Julie A.; Sanders, Timothy A.; Maricich, Stephen M.

    2017-01-01

    Mechanosensitive Merkel cells are thought to have finite lifespans, but controversy surrounds the frequency of their replacement and which precursor cells maintain the population. We found by embryonic EdU administration that Merkel cells undergo terminal cell division in late embryogenesis and survive long into adulthood. We also found that new Merkel cells are produced infrequently during normal skin homeostasis and that their numbers do not change during natural or induced hair cycles. In contrast, live imaging and EdU experiments showed that mild mechanical injury produced by skin shaving dramatically increases Merkel cell production. We confirmed with genetic cell ablation and fate-mapping experiments that new touch dome Merkel cells in adult mice arise from touch dome keratinocytes. Together, these independent lines of evidence show that Merkel cells in adult mice are long-lived, are replaced rarely during normal adult skin homeostasis, and that their production can be induced by repeated shaving. These results have profound implications for understanding sensory neurobiology and human diseases such as Merkel cell carcinoma. PMID:27998808

  3. Merkel cells are long-lived cells whose production is stimulated by skin injury.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wright, Margaret C; Logan, Gregory J; Bolock, Alexa M; Kubicki, Adam C; Hemphill, Julie A; Sanders, Timothy A; Maricich, Stephen M

    2017-02-01

    Mechanosensitive Merkel cells are thought to have finite lifespans, but controversy surrounds the frequency of their replacement and which precursor cells maintain the population. We found by embryonic EdU administration that Merkel cells undergo terminal cell division in late embryogenesis and survive long into adulthood. We also found that new Merkel cells are produced infrequently during normal skin homeostasis and that their numbers do not change during natural or induced hair cycles. In contrast, live imaging and EdU experiments showed that mild mechanical injury produced by skin shaving dramatically increases Merkel cell production. We confirmed with genetic cell ablation and fate-mapping experiments that new touch dome Merkel cells in adult mice arise from touch dome keratinocytes. Together, these independent lines of evidence show that Merkel cells in adult mice are long-lived, are replaced rarely during normal adult skin homeostasis, and that their production can be induced by repeated shaving. These results have profound implications for understanding sensory neurobiology and human diseases such as Merkel cell carcinoma. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Circumventing photodamage in live-cell microscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Magidson, Valentin; Khodjakov, Alexey

    2013-01-01

    Fluorescence microscopy has become an essential tool in cell biology. This technique allows researchers to visualize the dynamics of tissue, cells, individual organelles and macromolecular assemblies inside the cell. Unfortunately, fluorescence microscopy is not completely ‘non-invasive’ as the high-intensity excitation light required for excitation of fluorophores is inherently toxic for live cells. Physiological changes induced by excessive illumination can lead to artifacts and abnormal responses. In this chapter we review major factors that contribute to phototoxicity and discuss practical solutions for circumventing photodamage. These solutions include the proper choice of image acquisition parameters, optimization of filter sets, hardware synchronization, and the use of intelligent illumination to avoid unnecessary light exposure. PMID:23931522

  5. Visualization and targeted disruption of protein interactions in living cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herce, Henry D.; Deng, Wen; Helma, Jonas; Leonhardt, Heinrich; Cardoso, M. Cristina

    2013-01-01

    Protein–protein interactions are the basis of all processes in living cells, but most studies of these interactions rely on biochemical in vitro assays. Here we present a simple and versatile fluorescent-three-hybrid (F3H) strategy to visualize and target protein–protein interactions. A high-affinity nanobody anchors a GFP-fusion protein of interest at a defined cellular structure and the enrichment of red-labelled interacting proteins is measured at these sites. With this approach, we visualize the p53–HDM2 interaction in living cells and directly monitor the disruption of this interaction by Nutlin 3, a drug developed to boost p53 activity in cancer therapy. We further use this approach to develop a cell-permeable vector that releases a highly specific peptide disrupting the p53 and HDM2 interaction. The availability of multiple anchor sites and the simple optical readout of this nanobody-based capture assay enable systematic and versatile analyses of protein–protein interactions in practically any cell type and species. PMID:24154492

  6. Real-time monitoring of caspase cascade activation in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Lei; Huang, Xinglu; Choi, Ki Young; Ma, Ying; Zhang, Fan; Liu, Gang; Lee, Seulki; Chen, Xiaoyuan

    2012-10-10

    We introduce a simple, versatile and robust one-step technique that enables real-time imaging of multiple intracellular caspase activities in living cells without the need for complicated synthetic protocols. Conventional fluorogenic probes or recently reported activatable probes have been designed to target various proteases but are limited to extracellular molecules. Only a few have been applied to image intracellular proteases in living cells because most of these probes have limited cell-permeability. Our platform does not need complicated synthetic processes; instead it involves a straightforward peptide synthesis and a simple mixing step with a commercial transfection agent. The transfection agent efficiently delivered the highly quenched fluorogenic probes, comprised of distinctive pairs of dyes and quenchers, to the initiator caspase-8 and the effector caspase-3 in MDA-MB-435 cells, allowing dual-imaging of the activities of both caspases during the apoptotic process induced by TNF-related apoptosis induced ligand (TRAIL). With the combination of multiple fluorogenic probes, this simple platform can be applied to multiplexed imaging of selected intracellular proteases to study apoptotic processes in pathologies or for cell-based high throughput screening systems for drug discovery. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  7. Modulation of protein properties in living cells using nanobodies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirchhofer, Axel; Helma, Jonas; Schmidthals, Katrin; Frauer, Carina; Cui, Sheng; Karcher, Annette; Pellis, Mireille; Muyldermans, Serge; Casas-Delucchi, Corella S; Cardoso, M Cristina; Leonhardt, Heinrich; Hopfner, Karl-Peter; Rothbauer, Ulrich

    2010-01-01

    Protein conformation is critically linked to function and often controlled by interactions with regulatory factors. Here we report the selection of camelid-derived single-domain antibodies (nanobodies) that modulate the conformation and spectral properties of the green fluorescent protein (GFP). One nanobody could reversibly reduce GFP fluorescence by a factor of 5, whereas its displacement by a second nanobody caused an increase by a factor of 10. Structural analysis of GFP-nanobody complexes revealed that the two nanobodies induce subtle opposing changes in the chromophore environment, leading to altered absorption properties. Unlike conventional antibodies, the small, stable nanobodies are functional in living cells. Nanobody-induced changes were detected by ratio imaging and used to monitor protein expression and subcellular localization as well as translocation events such as the tamoxifen-induced nuclear localization of estrogen receptor. This work demonstrates that protein conformations can be manipulated and studied with nanobodies in living cells.

  8. TimeLapseAnalyzer: Multi-target analysis for live-cell imaging and time-lapse microscopy

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Huth, Johannes; Buchholz, Malte; Kraus, Johann M.

    2011-01-01

    The direct observation of cells over time using time-lapse microscopy can provide deep insights into many important biological processes. Reliable analyses of motility, proliferation, invasive potential or mortality of cells are essential to many studies involving live cell imaging and can aid in...... counting and tube formation analysis in high throughput screening of live-cell experiments. TimeLapseAnalyzer is freely available (MATLAB, Open Source) at http://www.informatik.uniulm. de/ni/mitarbeiter/HKestler/tla......., we developed TimeLapseAnalyzer. Apart from general purpose image enhancements and segmentation procedures, this extensible, self-contained, modular cross-platform package provides dedicated modalities for fast and reliable analysis of multi-target cell tracking, scratch wound healing analysis, cell...

  9. Tracking neuronal marker expression inside living differentiating cells using molecular beacons

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ilieva, Mirolyuba; Della Vedova, Paolo; Hansen, Ole

    2013-01-01

    and tyrosine hydroxylase mRNAs were expressed 2 and 3 days post induction of differentiation, respectively. Oct 4 was not detected with MB in these cells and signal was not increased over time suggesting that MB are generally stable inside the cells. The gene expression changes measured using MBs were...... confirmed using qRT-PCR. These results suggest that MBs are simple to use sensors inside living cell, and particularly useful for studying dynamic gene expression in heterogeneous cell populations....

  10. Live cell imaging combined with high-energy single-ion microbeam

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guo, Na; Du, Guanghua, E-mail: gh-du@impcas.ac.cn; Liu, Wenjing; Wu, Ruqun; Wei, Junzhe [Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou (China); Guo, Jinlong [Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou (China); Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou (China); Chen, Hao [Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou (China); Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Lanzhou, Lanzhou (China)

    2016-03-15

    DNA strand breaks can lead to cell carcinogenesis or cell death if not repaired rapidly and efficiently. An online live cell imaging system was established at the high energy microbeam facility at the Institute of Modern Physics to study early and fast cellular response to DNA damage after high linear energy transfer ion radiation. The HT1080 cells expressing XRCC1-RFP were irradiated with single high energy nickel ions, and time-lapse images of the irradiated cells were obtained online. The live cell imaging analysis shows that strand-break repair protein XRCC1 was recruited to the ion hit position within 20 s in the cells and formed bright foci in the cell nucleus. The fast recruitment of XRCC1 at the ion hits reached a maximum at about 200 s post-irradiation and then was followed by a slower release into the nucleoplasm. The measured dual-exponential kinetics of XRCC1 protein are consistent with the proposed consecutive reaction model, and the measurements obtained that the reaction rate constant of the XRCC1 recruitment to DNA strand break is 1.2 × 10{sup −3} s{sup −1} and the reaction rate constant of the XRCC1 release from the break-XRCC1 complex is 1.2 × 10{sup −2} s{sup −1}.

  11. Live cell imaging combined with high-energy single-ion microbeam

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guo, Na; Du, Guanghua; Liu, Wenjing; Wu, Ruqun; Wei, Junzhe; Guo, Jinlong; Chen, Hao

    2016-01-01

    DNA strand breaks can lead to cell carcinogenesis or cell death if not repaired rapidly and efficiently. An online live cell imaging system was established at the high energy microbeam facility at the Institute of Modern Physics to study early and fast cellular response to DNA damage after high linear energy transfer ion radiation. The HT1080 cells expressing XRCC1-RFP were irradiated with single high energy nickel ions, and time-lapse images of the irradiated cells were obtained online. The live cell imaging analysis shows that strand-break repair protein XRCC1 was recruited to the ion hit position within 20 s in the cells and formed bright foci in the cell nucleus. The fast recruitment of XRCC1 at the ion hits reached a maximum at about 200 s post-irradiation and then was followed by a slower release into the nucleoplasm. The measured dual-exponential kinetics of XRCC1 protein are consistent with the proposed consecutive reaction model, and the measurements obtained that the reaction rate constant of the XRCC1 recruitment to DNA strand break is 1.2 × 10"−"3 s"−"1 and the reaction rate constant of the XRCC1 release from the break-XRCC1 complex is 1.2 × 10"−"2 s"−"1.

  12. Acid base activity of live bacteria: Implications for quantifying cell wall charge

    Science.gov (United States)

    Claessens, Jacqueline; van Lith, Yvonne; Laverman, Anniet M.; Van Cappellen, Philippe

    2006-01-01

    To distinguish the buffering capacity associated with functional groups in the cell wall from that resulting from metabolic processes, base or acid consumption by live and dead cells of the Gram-negative bacterium Shewanella putrefaciens was measured in a pH stat system. Live cells exhibited fast consumption of acid (pH 4) or base (pH 7, 8, 9, and 10) during the first few minutes of the experiments. At pH 5.5, no acid or base was required to maintain the initial pH constant. The initial amounts of acid or base consumed by the live cells at pH 4, 8, and 10 were of comparable magnitudes as those neutralized at the same pHs by intact cells killed by exposure to gamma radiation or ethanol. Cells disrupted in a French press required higher amounts of acid or base, due to additional buffering by intracellular constituents. At pH 4, acid neutralization by suspensions of live cells stopped after 50 min, because of loss of viability. In contrast, under neutral and alkaline conditions, base consumption continued for the entire duration of the experiments (5 h). This long-term base neutralization was, at least partly, due to active respiration by the cells, as indicated by the build-up of succinate in solution. Qualitatively, the acid-base activity of live cells of the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis resembled that of S. putrefaciens. The pH-dependent charging of ionizable functional groups in the cell walls of the live bacteria was estimated from the initial amounts of acid or base consumed in the pH stat experiments. From pH 4 to 10, the cell wall charge increased from near-zero values to about -4 × 10 -16 mol cell -1 and -6.5 × 10 -16 mol cell -1 for S. putrefaciens and B. subtilis, respectively. The similar cell wall charging of the two bacterial strains is consistent with the inferred low contribution of lipopolysaccharides to the buffering capacity of the Gram-negative cell wall (of the order of 10%).

  13. Axial tomography in 3D live cell microscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richter, Verena; Bruns, Sarah; Bruns, Thomas; Piper, Mathis; Weber, Petra; Wagner, Michael; Cremer, Christoph; Schneckenburger, Herbert

    2017-07-01

    A miniaturized setup for sample rotation on a microscope stage has been developed, combined with light sheet, confocal or structured illumination microscopy and applied to living cells as well as to small organisms. This setup permits axial tomography with improved visualization of single cells or small cell clusters as well as an enhanced effective 3D resolution upon sample rotation.

  14. Live Cell in Vitro and in Vivo Imaging Applications: Accelerating Drug Discovery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Neil O Carragher

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Dynamic regulation of specific molecular processes and cellular phenotypes in live cell systems reveal unique insights into cell fate and drug pharmacology that are not gained from traditional fixed endpoint assays. Recent advances in microscopic imaging platform technology combined with the development of novel optical biosensors and sophisticated image analysis solutions have increased the scope of live cell imaging applications in drug discovery. We highlight recent literature examples where live cell imaging has uncovered novel insight into biological mechanism or drug mode-of-action. We survey distinct types of optical biosensors and associated analytical methods for monitoring molecular dynamics, in vitro and in vivo. We describe the recent expansion of live cell imaging into automated target validation and drug screening activities through the development of dedicated brightfield and fluorescence kinetic imaging platforms. We provide specific examples of how temporal profiling of phenotypic response signatures using such kinetic imaging platforms can increase the value of in vitro high-content screening. Finally, we offer a prospective view of how further application and development of live cell imaging technology and reagents can accelerate preclinical lead optimization cycles and enhance the in vitro to in vivo translation of drug candidates.

  15. Quantitative live-cell imaging of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) assembly.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baumgärtel, Viola; Müller, Barbara; Lamb, Don C

    2012-05-01

    Advances in fluorescence methodologies make it possible to investigate biological systems in unprecedented detail. Over the last few years, quantitative live-cell imaging has increasingly been used to study the dynamic interactions of viruses with cells and is expected to become even more indispensable in the future. Here, we describe different fluorescence labeling strategies that have been used to label HIV-1 for live cell imaging and the fluorescence based methods used to visualize individual aspects of virus-cell interactions. This review presents an overview of experimental methods and recent experiments that have employed quantitative microscopy in order to elucidate the dynamics of late stages in the HIV-1 replication cycle. This includes cytosolic interactions of the main structural protein, Gag, with itself and the viral RNA genome, the recruitment of Gag and RNA to the plasma membrane, virion assembly at the membrane and the recruitment of cellular proteins involved in HIV-1 release to the nascent budding site.

  16. The effects of atomic force microscopy upon nominated living cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    O' Hagan, Barry Michael Gerard [School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster, Cromore Road, Coleraine, County Londonderry, BT52 1SA (United Kingdom)]. E-mail: bmg.ohagan@ulstser.ac.uk; Doyle, Peter [Unilever Research, Port Sunlight, The Wirral, Merseyside (United Kingdom); Allen, James M. [School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster, Cromore Road, Coleraine, County Londonderry, BT52 1SA (United Kingdom); Sutton, Kerry [School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster, Cromore Road, Coleraine, County Londonderry, BT52 1SA (United Kingdom); McKerr, George [School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster, Cromore Road, Coleraine, County Londonderry, BT52 1SA (United Kingdom)

    2004-12-15

    This work describes a system for precise re-location of cells within a monolayer after atomic force imaging. As we know little about probe interaction with soft biological surfaces any corroborative evidence is of great importance. For example, it is of paramount importance in living cell force microscopy that interrogated cells can be re-located and imaged by other corroborative technologies. Methodologies expressed here have shown that non-invasive force parameters can be established for specific cell types. Additionally, we show that the same sample can be transferred reliably to an SEM. Results here indicate that further work with live cells should initially establish appropriate prevailing force parameters and that cell damage should be checked for before and after an imaging experiment.

  17. The effects of atomic force microscopy upon nominated living cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Hagan, Barry Michael Gerard; Doyle, Peter; Allen, James M.; Sutton, Kerry; McKerr, George

    2004-01-01

    This work describes a system for precise re-location of cells within a monolayer after atomic force imaging. As we know little about probe interaction with soft biological surfaces any corroborative evidence is of great importance. For example, it is of paramount importance in living cell force microscopy that interrogated cells can be re-located and imaged by other corroborative technologies. Methodologies expressed here have shown that non-invasive force parameters can be established for specific cell types. Additionally, we show that the same sample can be transferred reliably to an SEM. Results here indicate that further work with live cells should initially establish appropriate prevailing force parameters and that cell damage should be checked for before and after an imaging experiment

  18. Enhanced fluorescence imaging of live cells by effective cytosolic delivery of probes.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marzia Massignani

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Microscopic techniques enable real-space imaging of complex biological events and processes. They have become an essential tool to confirm and complement hypotheses made by biomedical scientists and also allow the re-examination of existing models, hence influencing future investigations. Particularly imaging live cells is crucial for an improved understanding of dynamic biological processes, however hitherto live cell imaging has been limited by the necessity to introduce probes within a cell without altering its physiological and structural integrity. We demonstrate herein that this hurdle can be overcome by effective cytosolic delivery. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We show the delivery within several types of mammalian cells using nanometre-sized biomimetic polymer vesicles (a.k.a. polymersomes that offer both highly efficient cellular uptake and endolysomal escape capability without any effect on the cellular metabolic activity. Such biocompatible polymersomes can encapsulate various types of probes including cell membrane probes and nucleic acid probes as well as labelled nucleic acids, antibodies and quantum dots. SIGNIFICANCE: We show the delivery of sufficient quantities of probes to the cytosol, allowing sustained functional imaging of live cells over time periods of days to weeks. Finally the combination of such effective staining with three-dimensional imaging by confocal laser scanning microscopy allows cell imaging in complex three-dimensional environments under both mono-culture and co-culture conditions. Thus cell migration and proliferation can be studied in models that are much closer to the in vivo situation.

  19. HaloTag protein-mediated specific labeling of living cells with quantum dots

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    So, Min-kyung; Yao Hequan; Rao Jianghong

    2008-01-01

    Quantum dots emerge as an attractive alternative to small molecule fluorophores as fluorescent tags for in vivo cell labeling and imaging. This communication presents a method for specific labeling of live cells using quantum dots. The labeling is mediated by HaloTag protein expressed at the cell surface which forms a stable covalent adduct with its ligand (HaloTag ligand). The labeling can be performed in one single step with quantum dot conjugates that are functionalized with HaloTag ligand, or in two steps with biotinylated HaloTag ligand first and followed by streptavidin coated quantum dots. Live cell fluorescence imaging indicates that the labeling is specific and takes place at the cell surface. This HaloTag protein-mediated cell labeling method should facilitate the application of quantum dots for live cell imaging

  20. [Development of a Fluorescence Probe for Live Cell Imaging].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shibata, Aya

    2017-01-01

     Probes that detect specific biological materials are indispensable tools for deepening our understanding of various cellular phenomena. In live cell imaging, the probe must emit fluorescence only when a specific substance is detected. In this paper, we introduce a new probe we developed for live cell imaging. Glutathione S-transferase (GST) activity is higher in tumor cells than in normal cells and is involved in the development of resistance to various anticancer drugs. We previously reported the development of a general strategy for the synthesis of probes for detection of GST enzymes, including fluorogenic, bioluminogenic, and 19 F-NMR probes. Arylsulfonyl groups were used as caging groups during probe design. The fluorogenic probes were successfully used to quantitate very low levels of GST activity in cell extracts and were also successfully applied to the imaging of microsomal MGST1 activity in living cells. The bioluminogenic and 19 F-NMR probes were able to detect GST activity in Escherichia coli cells. Oligonucleotide-templated reactions are powerful tools for nucleic acid sensing. This strategy exploits the target strand as a template for two functionalized probes and provides a simple molecular mechanism for multiple turnover reactions. We developed a nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction-triggered fluorescent probe. The probe completed its reaction within 30 s of initiation and amplified the fluorescence signal from 0.5 pM target oligonucleotide by 1500 fold under isothermal conditions. Additionally, we applied the oligonucleotide-templated reaction for molecular releasing and peptide detection.

  1. A Novel Technique to Follow Consequences of Exogenous Factors, Including Therapeutic Drugs, on Living Human Breast Epithelial Cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    1999-07-01

    and lipid vectors, are being tested. Concurrent with the development of procedures for live - cell imaging , we are examining the distribution of proteins...dimensional matrix. These studies have not yet begun. There are a number of procedures that must be developed and perfected in the live - cell imaging , as...components of the Wnt signaling pathway are too preliminary and require additional research prior to publication. (9) CONCLUSIONS Live cell imaging of

  2. Deep Learning Automates the Quantitative Analysis of Individual Cells in Live-Cell Imaging Experiments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Valen, David A; Kudo, Takamasa; Lane, Keara M; Macklin, Derek N; Quach, Nicolas T; DeFelice, Mialy M; Maayan, Inbal; Tanouchi, Yu; Ashley, Euan A; Covert, Markus W

    2016-11-01

    Live-cell imaging has opened an exciting window into the role cellular heterogeneity plays in dynamic, living systems. A major critical challenge for this class of experiments is the problem of image segmentation, or determining which parts of a microscope image correspond to which individual cells. Current approaches require many hours of manual curation and depend on approaches that are difficult to share between labs. They are also unable to robustly segment the cytoplasms of mammalian cells. Here, we show that deep convolutional neural networks, a supervised machine learning method, can solve this challenge for multiple cell types across the domains of life. We demonstrate that this approach can robustly segment fluorescent images of cell nuclei as well as phase images of the cytoplasms of individual bacterial and mammalian cells from phase contrast images without the need for a fluorescent cytoplasmic marker. These networks also enable the simultaneous segmentation and identification of different mammalian cell types grown in co-culture. A quantitative comparison with prior methods demonstrates that convolutional neural networks have improved accuracy and lead to a significant reduction in curation time. We relay our experience in designing and optimizing deep convolutional neural networks for this task and outline several design rules that we found led to robust performance. We conclude that deep convolutional neural networks are an accurate method that require less curation time, are generalizable to a multiplicity of cell types, from bacteria to mammalian cells, and expand live-cell imaging capabilities to include multi-cell type systems.

  3. A new fluorescent pH probe for imaging lysosomes in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lv, Hong-Shui; Huang, Shu-Ya; Xu, Yu; Dai, Xi; Miao, Jun-Ying; Zhao, Bao-Xiang

    2014-01-15

    A new rhodamine B-based pH fluorescent probe has been synthesized and characterized. The probe responds to acidic pH with short response time, high selectivity and sensitivity, and exhibits a more than 20-fold increase in fluorescence intensity within the pH range of 7.5-4.1 with the pKa value of 5.72, which is valuable to study acidic organelles in living cells. Also, it has been successfully applied to HeLa cells, for its low cytotoxicity, brilliant photostability, good membrane permeability and no 'alkalizing effect' on lysosomes. The results demonstrate that this probe is a lysosome-specific probe, which can selectively stain lysosomes and monitor lysosomal pH changes in living cells. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Live-cell visualization of gasdermin D-driven pyroptotic cell death.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rathkey, Joseph K; Benson, Bryan L; Chirieleison, Steven M; Yang, Jie; Xiao, Tsan S; Dubyak, George R; Huang, Alex Y; Abbott, Derek W

    2017-09-01

    Pyroptosis is a form of cell death important in defenses against pathogens that can also result in a potent and sometimes pathological inflammatory response. During pyroptosis, GSDMD (gasdermin D), the pore-forming effector protein, is cleaved, forms oligomers, and inserts into the membranes of the cell, resulting in rapid cell death. However, the potent cell death induction caused by GSDMD has complicated our ability to understand the biology of this protein. Studies aimed at visualizing GSDMD have relied on expression of GSDMD fragments in epithelial cell lines that naturally lack GSDMD expression and also lack the proteases necessary to cleave GSDMD. In this work, we performed mutagenesis and molecular modeling to strategically place tags and fluorescent proteins within GSDMD that support native pyroptosis and facilitate live-cell imaging of pyroptotic cell death. Here, we demonstrate that these fusion proteins are cleaved by caspases-1 and -11 at Asp-276. Mutations that disrupted the predicted p30-p20 autoinhibitory interface resulted in GSDMD aggregation, supporting the oligomerizing activity of these mutations. Furthermore, we show that these novel GSDMD fusions execute inflammasome-dependent pyroptotic cell death in response to multiple stimuli and allow for visualization of the morphological changes associated with pyroptotic cell death in real time. This work therefore provides new tools that not only expand the molecular understanding of pyroptosis but also enable its direct visualization. © 2017 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

  5. Lateral motion and bending of microtubules studied with a new single-filament tracking routine in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pallavicini, Carla; Levi, Valeria; Wetzler, Diana E; Angiolini, Juan F; Benseñor, Lorena; Despósito, Marcelo A; Bruno, Luciana

    2014-06-17

    The cytoskeleton is involved in numerous cellular processes such as migration, division, and contraction and provides the tracks for transport driven by molecular motors. Therefore, it is very important to quantify the mechanical behavior of the cytoskeletal filaments to get a better insight into cell mechanics and organization. It has been demonstrated that relevant mechanical properties of microtubules can be extracted from the analysis of their motion and shape fluctuations. However, tracking individual filaments in living cells is extremely complex due, for example, to the high and heterogeneous background. We introduce a believed new tracking algorithm that allows recovering the coordinates of fluorescent microtubules with ∼9 nm precision in in vitro conditions. To illustrate potential applications of this algorithm, we studied the curvature distributions of fluorescent microtubules in living cells. By performing a Fourier analysis of the microtubule shapes, we found that the curvatures followed a thermal-like distribution as previously reported with an effective persistence length of ∼20 μm, a value significantly smaller than that measured in vitro. We also verified that the microtubule-associated protein XTP or the depolymerization of the actin network do not affect this value; however, the disruption of intermediate filaments decreased the persistence length. Also, we recovered trajectories of microtubule segments in actin or intermediate filament-depleted cells, and observed a significant increase of their motion with respect to untreated cells showing that these filaments contribute to the overall organization of the microtubule network. Moreover, the analysis of trajectories of microtubule segments in untreated cells showed that these filaments presented a slower but more directional motion in the cortex with respect to the perinuclear region, and suggests that the tracking routine would allow mapping the microtubule dynamical organization in cells

  6. Microfabricated Electrochemical Cell-Based Biosensors for Analysis of Living Cells In Vitro

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jun Wang

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Cellular biochemical parameters can be used to reveal the physiological and functional information of various cells. Due to demonstrated high accuracy and non-invasiveness, electrochemical detection methods have been used for cell-based investigation. When combined with improved biosensor design and advanced measurement systems, the on-line biochemical analysis of living cells in vitro has been applied for biological mechanism study, drug screening and even environmental monitoring. In recent decades, new types of miniaturized electrochemical biosensor are emerging with the development of microfabrication technology. This review aims to give an overview of the microfabricated electrochemical cell-based biosensors, such as microelectrode arrays (MEA, the electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS technique, and the light addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS. The details in their working principles, measurement systems, and applications in cell monitoring are covered. Driven by the need for high throughput and multi-parameter detection proposed by biomedicine, the development trends of electrochemical cell-based biosensors are also introduced, including newly developed integrated biosensors, and the application of nanotechnology and microfluidic technology.

  7. Secondary Metabolite Localization by Autofluorescence in Living Plant Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pascale Talamond

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Autofluorescent molecules are abundant in plant cells and spectral images offer means for analyzing their spectra, yielding information on their accumulation and function. Based on their fluorescence characteristics, an imaging approach using multiphoton microscopy was designed to assess localization of the endogenous fluorophores in living plant cells. This method, which requires no previous treatment, provides an effective experimental tool for discriminating between multiple naturally-occurring fluorophores in living-tissues. Combined with advanced Linear Unmixing, the spectral analysis extends the possibilities and enables the simultaneous detection of fluorescent molecules reliably separating overlapping emission spectra. However, as with any technology, the possibility for artifactual results does exist. This methodological article presents an overview of the applications of tissular and intra-cellular localization of these intrinsic fluorophores in leaves and fruits (here for coffee and vanilla. This method will provide new opportunities for studying cellular environments and the behavior of endogenous fluorophores in the intracellular environment.

  8. Cell tracking using iron oxide fails to distinguish dead from living transplanted cells in the infarcted heart.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winter, E M; Hogers, B; van der Graaf, L M; Gittenberger-de Groot, A C; Poelmann, R E; van der Weerd, L

    2010-03-01

    Recently, debate has arisen about the usefulness of cell tracking using iron oxide-labeled cells. Two important issues in determining the usefulness of cell tracking with MRI are generally overlooked; first, the effect of graft rejection in immunocompetent models, and second, the necessity for careful histological confirmation of the fate of the labeled cells in the presence of iron oxide. Therefore, both iron oxide-labeled living as well as dead epicardium-derived cells (EPDCs) were investigated in ischemic myocardium of immunodeficient non-obese diabetic (NOD)/acid: non-obese diabetic severe combined immunodeficient (NOD/scid) mice with 9.4T MRI until 6 weeks after surgery, at which time immunohistochemical analysis was performed. In both groups, voids on MRI scans were observed that did not change in number, size, or localization over time. Based on MRI, no distinction could be made between living and dead injected cells. Prussian blue staining confirmed that the hypointense spots on MRI corresponded to iron-loaded cells. However, in the dead-EPDC recipients, all iron-positive cells appeared to be macrophages, while the living-EPDC recipients also contained engrafted iron-loaded EPDCs. Iron labeling is inadequate for determining the fate of transplanted cells in the immunodeficient host, since dead cells produce an MRI signal indistinguishable from incorporated living cells. (c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  9. Introducing micrometer-sized artificial objects into live cells: a method for cell-giant unilamellar vesicle electrofusion.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Akira C Saito

    Full Text Available Here, we report a method for introducing large objects of up to a micrometer in diameter into cultured mammalian cells by electrofusion of giant unilamellar vesicles. We prepared GUVs containing various artificial objects using a water-in-oil (w/o emulsion centrifugation method. GUVs and dispersed HeLa cells were exposed to an alternating current (AC field to induce a linear cell-GUV alignment, and then a direct current (DC pulse was applied to facilitate transient electrofusion. With uniformly sized fluorescent beads as size indexes, we successfully and efficiently introduced beads of 1 µm in diameter into living cells along with a plasmid mammalian expression vector. Our electrofusion did not affect cell viability. After the electrofusion, cells proliferated normally until confluence was reached, and the introduced fluorescent beads were inherited during cell division. Analysis by both confocal microscopy and flow cytometry supported these findings. As an alternative approach, we also introduced a designed nanostructure (DNA origami into live cells. The results we report here represent a milestone for designing artificial symbiosis of functionally active objects (such as micro-machines in living cells. Moreover, our technique can be used for drug delivery, tissue engineering, and cell manipulation.

  10. Temperature-dependent imaging of living cells by AFM

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Espenel, Cedric; Giocondi, Marie-Cecile; Seantier, Bastien; Dosset, Patrice; Milhiet, Pierre-Emmanuel; Le Grimellec, Christian

    2008-01-01

    Characterization of lateral organization of plasma membranes is a prerequisite to the understanding of membrane structure-function relationships in living cells. Lipid-lipid and lipid-protein interactions are responsible for the existence of various membrane microdomains involved in cell signalization and in numerous pathologies. Developing approaches for characterizing microdomains associate identification tools like recognition imaging with high-resolution topographical imaging. Membrane properties are markedly dependent on temperature. However, mesoscopic scale topographical information of cell surface in a temperature range covering most of cell biology experimentation is still lacking. In this work we have examined the possibility of imaging the temperature-dependent behavior of eukaryotic cells by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Our results establish that the surface of living CV1 kidney cells can be imaged by AFM, between 5 and 37 deg. C, both in contact and tapping modes. These first temperature-dependent data show that large cell structures appeared essentially stable at a microscopic scale. On the other hand, as shown by contact mode AFM, the surface was highly dynamic at a mesoscopic scale, with marked changes in apparent topography, friction, and deflection signals. When keeping the scanning conditions constant, a progressive loss in the image contrast was however observed, using tapping mode, on decreasing the temperature

  11. Raman spectroscopy for grading of live osteosarcoma cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chiang, Yi-Hung; Wu, Stewart H; Kuo, Yi-Chun; Chen, How-Foo; Chiou, Arthur; Lee, Oscar K

    2015-04-18

    Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant bone tumor, and the grading of osteosarcoma cells relies on traditional histopathology and molecular biology methods, which require RNA extraction, protein isolation and immunohistological staining. All these methods require cell isolation, lysis or fixation, which is time-consuming and requires certain amount of tumor specimen. In this study, we report the use of Raman spectroscopy for grading of malignant osteosarcoma cells. We demonstrate that, based on the detection of differential production of mineral species, Raman spectroscopy can be used as a live cell analyzer to accurately assess the grades of osteosarcoma cells by evaluating their mineralization levels. Mineralization level was assessed by measuring amount of hydroxyapatite (HA), which is highly expressed in mature osteoblasts, but not in poorly differentiated osteosarcoma cell or mesenchymal stem cells, the putative cell-of-origin of osteosarcoma. We found that under Raman spectroscopy, the level of HA production was high in MG-63 cells, which are low-grade. Moreover, hydroxyapatite production was low in high-grade osteosarcoma cells such as 143B and SaOS2 cells (p Raman spectroscopy for the measurement of HA production by the protocol reported in this study may serve as a useful tool to rapidly and accurately assess the degree of malignancy in osteosarcoma cells in a label-free manner. Such application may shorten the period of pathological diagnosis and may benefit patients who are inflicted with osteosarcoma.

  12. Live embryo imaging to follow cell cycle and chromosomes stability after nuclear transfer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balbach, Sebastian T; Boiani, Michele

    2015-01-01

    Nuclear transfer (NT) into mouse oocytes yields a transcriptionally and functionally heterogeneous population of cloned embryos. Most studies of NT embryos consider only embryos at predefined key stages (e.g., morula or blastocyst), that is, after the bulk of reprogramming has taken place. These retrospective approaches are of limited use to elucidate mechanisms of reprogramming and to predict developmental success. Observing cloned embryo development using live embryo cinematography has the potential to reveal otherwise undetectable embryo features. However, light exposure necessary for live cell cinematography is highly toxic to cloned embryos. Here we describe a protocol for combined bright-field and fluorescence live-cell imaging of histone H2b-GFP expressing mouse embryos, to record cell divisions up to the blastocyst stage. This protocol, which can be adapted to observe other reporters such as Oct4-GFP or Nanog-GFP, allowed us to quantitatively analyze cleavage kinetics of cloned embryos.

  13. Teachable, high-content analytics for live-cell, phase contrast movies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alworth, Samuel V; Watanabe, Hirotada; Lee, James S J

    2010-09-01

    CL-Quant is a new solution platform for broad, high-content, live-cell image analysis. Powered by novel machine learning technologies and teach-by-example interfaces, CL-Quant provides a platform for the rapid development and application of scalable, high-performance, and fully automated analytics for a broad range of live-cell microscopy imaging applications, including label-free phase contrast imaging. The authors used CL-Quant to teach off-the-shelf universal analytics, called standard recipes, for cell proliferation, wound healing, cell counting, and cell motility assays using phase contrast movies collected on the BioStation CT and BioStation IM platforms. Similar to application modules, standard recipes are intended to work robustly across a wide range of imaging conditions without requiring customization by the end user. The authors validated the performance of the standard recipes by comparing their performance with truth created manually, or by custom analytics optimized for each individual movie (and therefore yielding the best possible result for the image), and validated by independent review. The validation data show that the standard recipes' performance is comparable with the validated truth with low variation. The data validate that the CL-Quant standard recipes can provide robust results without customization for live-cell assays in broad cell types and laboratory settings.

  14. Transport of Ebolavirus Nucleocapsids Is Dependent on Actin Polymerization: Live-Cell Imaging Analysis of Ebolavirus-Infected Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schudt, Gordian; Dolnik, Olga; Kolesnikova, Larissa; Biedenkopf, Nadine; Herwig, Astrid; Becker, Stephan

    2015-10-01

    Transport of ebolavirus (EBOV) nucleocapsids from perinuclear viral inclusions, where they are formed, to the site of budding at the plasma membrane represents an obligatory step of virus assembly. Until now, no live-cell studies on EBOV nucleocapsid transport have been performed, and participation of host cellular factors in this process, as well as the trajectories and speed of nucleocapsid transport, remain unknown. Live-cell imaging of EBOV-infected cells treated with different inhibitors of cellular cytoskeleton was used for the identification of cellular proteins involved in the nucleocapsid transport. EBOV nucleocapsids were visualized by expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled nucleocapsid viral protein 30 (VP30) in EBOV-infected cells. Incorporation of the fusion protein VP30-GFP into EBOV nucleocapsids was confirmed by Western blot and indirect immunofluorescence analyses. Importantly, VP30-GFP fluorescence was readily detectable in the densely packed nucleocapsids inside perinuclear viral inclusions and in the dispersed rod-like nucleocapsids located outside of viral inclusions. Live-cell imaging of EBOV-infected cells revealed exit of single nucleocapsids from the viral inclusions and their intricate transport within the cytoplasm before budding at the plasma membrane. Nucleocapsid transport was arrested upon depolymerization of actin filaments (F-actin) and inhibition of the actin-nucleating Arp2/3 complex, and it was not altered upon depolymerization of microtubules or inhibition of N-WASP. Actin comet tails were often detected at the rear end of nucleocapsids. Marginally located nucleocapsids entered filopodia, moved inside, and budded from the tip of these thin cellular protrusions. Live-cell imaging of EBOV-infected cells revealed actin-dependent long-distance transport of EBOV nucleocapsids before budding at the cell surface. These findings provide useful insights into EBOV assembly and have potential application in the development

  15. High-throughput screening of hybridoma supernatants using multiplexed fluorescent cell barcoding on live cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Mei; Chan, Brian M; Schow, Peter W; Chang, Wesley S; King, Chadwick T

    2017-12-01

    With current available assay formats using either immobilized protein (ELISA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) or immunostaining of fixed cells for primary monoclonal antibody (mAb) screening, researchers often fail to identify and characterize antibodies that recognize the native conformation of cell-surface antigens. Therefore, screening using live cells has become an integral and important step contributing to the successful identification of therapeutic antibody candidates. Thus the need for developing high-throughput screening (HTS) technologies using live cells has become a major priority for therapeutic mAb discovery and development. We have developed a novel technique called Multiplexed Fluorescent Cell Barcoding (MFCB), a flow cytometry-based method based upon the Fluorescent Cell Barcoding (FCB) technique and the Luminex fluorescent bead array system, but is applicable to high-through mAb screens on live cells. Using this technique in our system, we can simultaneously identify or characterize the antibody-antigen binding of up to nine unique fluorescent labeled cell populations in the time that it would normally take to process a single population. This has significantly reduced the amount of time needed for the identification of potential lead candidates. This new technology enables investigators to conduct large-scale primary hybridoma screens using flow cytometry. This in turn has allowed us to screen antibodies more efficiently than before and streamline identification and characterization of lead molecules. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Biological interaction of living cells with COSAN-based synthetic vesicles.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tarrés, Màrius; Canetta, Elisabetta; Paul, Eleanor; Forbes, Jordan; Azzouni, Karima; Viñas, Clara; Teixidor, Francesc; Harwood, Adrian J

    2015-01-15

    Cobaltabisdicarbollide (COSAN) [3,3'-Co(1,2-C2B9H11)2](-), is a complex boron-based anion that has the unusual property of self-assembly into membranes and vesicles. These membranes have similar dimensions to biological membranes found in cells, and previously COSAN has been shown to pass through synthetic lipid membranes and those of living cells without causing breakdown of membrane barrier properties. Here, we investigate the interaction of this inorganic membrane system with living cells. We show that COSAN has no immediate effect on cell viability, and cells fully recover when COSAN is removed following exposure for hours to days. COSAN elicits a range of cell biological effects, including altered cell morphology, inhibition of cell growth and, in some cases, apoptosis. These observations reveal a new biology at the interface between inorganic, synthetic COSAN membranes and naturally occurring biological membranes.

  17. THE NISSL SUBSTANCE OF LIVING AND FIXED SPINAL GANGLION CELLS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deitch, Arline D.; Moses, Montrose J.

    1957-01-01

    Living chick spinal ganglion neurons grown for 19 to 25 days in vitro were photographed with a color-translating ultraviolet microscope (UV-91) at 265, 287, and 310 mµ. This instrument was unique in permitting rapid accumulation of ultraviolet information with minimal damage to the cell. In the photographs taken at 265 mµ of the living neurons, discrete ultraviolet-absorbing cytoplasmic masses were observed which were found to be virtually unchanged in appearance after formalin fixation. These were identical with the Nissl bodies of the same cells seen after staining with basic dyes. The correlation of ultraviolet absorption, ribonuclease extraction, and staining experiments with acid and basic dyes confirmed the ribonucleoprotein nature of these Nissl bodies in the living and fixed cells. No change in distribution or concentration of ultraviolet-absorbing substance was observed in the first 12 ultraviolet photographs of a neuron, and it is concluded that the cells had not been subjected to significant ultraviolet damage during the period of photography. On the basis of these observations, as well as previous findings with phase contrast microscopy, it is concluded that Nissl bodies preexist in the living neuron as discrete aggregates containing high concentrations of nucleoprotein. PMID:13438929

  18. Combining bio-electrospraying with gene therapy: a novel biotechnique for the delivery of genetic material via living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ward, Eliot; Chan, Emma; Gustafsson, Kenth; Jayasinghe, Suwan N

    2010-05-01

    The investigations reported in this article demonstrate the ability of bio-electrosprays and cell electrospinning to deliver a genetic construct in association with living cells. Previous studies on both bio-electrosprays and cell electrospinning demonstrated great promise for tissue engineering and regenerative biology/medicine. The investigations described herein widen the applicability of these biotechniques by combining gene therapy protocols, resulting in a novel drug delivery methodology previously unexplored. In these studies a human cell line was transduced with recombinant self-inactivating lentiviral particles. These particles incorporated a green fluorescent protein fused to an endosomal targeting construct. This construct encodes a peptide, which can subsequently be detected on the surface of cells by specific T-cells. The transduced cell line was subsequently manipulated in association with either bio-electrospraying or cell electrospinning. Hence this demonstrates (i) the ability to safely handle genetically modified living cells and (ii) the ability to directly form pre-determined architectures bearing living therapeutic cells. This merged technology demonstrates a unique approach for directly forming living therapeutic architectures for controlled and targeted release of experimental cells/genes, as well as medical cell/gene therapeutics for a plethora of biological and medical applications. Hence, such developments could be applied to personalised medicine.

  19. Live-cell imaging of post-golgi transport vesicles in cultured hippocampal neurons

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Camilla Stampe; Misonou, Hiroaki

    2015-01-01

    compartments of neurons. In the past two decades, the establishment and advancement of fluorescent protein technology have provided us with opportunities to study how proteins are trafficked in living cells. However, live imaging of trafficking processes in neurons necessitate imaging tools to distinguish...... the several different routes that neurons use for protein trafficking. Here we provide a novel protocol to selectively visualize post-Golgi transport vesicles carrying fluorescent-labeled ion channel proteins in living neurons. Further, we provide a number of analytical tools we developed to quantify...... mechanisms by which post-Golgi vesicles are trafficked in neurons. Our protocol uniquely combines the classic temperature-block with close monitoring of the transient expression of transfected protein tagged with fluorescent proteins, and provides a quick and easy way to study protein trafficking in living...

  20. Live cell imaging reveals marked variability in myoblast proliferation and fate

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Background During the process of muscle regeneration, activated stem cells termed satellite cells proliferate, and then differentiate to form new myofibers that restore the injured area. Yet not all satellite cells contribute to muscle repair. Some continue to proliferate, others die, and others become quiescent and are available for regeneration following subsequent injury. The mechanisms that regulate the adoption of different cell fates in a muscle cell precursor population remain unclear. Methods We have used live cell imaging and lineage tracing to study cell fate in the C2 myoblast line. Results Analyzing the behavior of individual myoblasts revealed marked variability in both cell cycle duration and viability, but similarities between cells derived from the same parental lineage. As a consequence, lineage sizes and outcomes differed dramatically, and individual lineages made uneven contributions toward the terminally differentiated population. Thus, the cohort of myoblasts undergoing differentiation at the end of an experiment differed dramatically from the lineages present at the beginning. Treatment with IGF-I increased myoblast number by maintaining viability and by stimulating a fraction of cells to complete one additional cell cycle in differentiation medium, and as a consequence reduced the variability of the terminal population compared with controls. Conclusion Our results reveal that heterogeneity of responses to external cues is an intrinsic property of cultured myoblasts that may be explained in part by parental lineage, and demonstrate the power of live cell imaging for understanding how muscle differentiation is regulated. PMID:23638706

  1. Small Molecule-Photoactive Yellow Protein Labeling Technology in Live Cell Imaging

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Feng Gao

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Characterization of the chemical environment, movement, trafficking and interactions of proteins in live cells is essential to understanding their functions. Labeling protein with functional molecules is a widely used approach in protein research to elucidate the protein location and functions both in vitro and in live cells or in vivo. A peptide or a protein tag fused to the protein of interest and provides the opportunities for an attachment of small molecule probes or other fluorophore to image the dynamics of protein localization. Here we reviewed the recent development of no-wash small molecular probes for photoactive yellow protein (PYP-tag, by the means of utilizing a quenching mechanism based on the intramolecular interactions, or an environmental-sensitive fluorophore. Several fluorogenic probes have been developed, with fast labeling kinetics and cell permeability. This technology allows quick live-cell imaging of cell-surface and intracellular proteins without a wash-out procedure.

  2. Live Cell Refractometry Using Hilbert Phase Microscopy and Confocal Reflectance Microscopy†

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lue, Niyom; Choi, Wonshik; Popescu, Gabriel; Yaqoob, Zahid; Badizadegan, Kamran; Dasari, Ramachandra R.; Feld, Michael S.

    2010-01-01

    Quantitative chemical analysis has served as a useful tool for understanding cellular metabolisms in biology. Among many physical properties used in chemical analysis, refractive index in particular has provided molecular concentration that is an important indicator for biological activities. In this report, we present a method of extracting full-field refractive index maps of live cells in their native states. We first record full-field optical thickness maps of living cells by Hilbert phase microscopy and then acquire physical thickness maps of the same cells using a custom-built confocal reflectance microscope. Full-field and axially averaged refractive index maps are acquired from the ratio of optical thickness to physical thickness. The accuracy of the axially averaged index measurement is 0.002. This approach can provide novel biological assays of label-free living cells in situ. PMID:19803506

  3. Live cell refractometry using Hilbert phase microscopy and confocal reflectance microscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lue, Niyom; Choi, Wonshik; Popescu, Gabriel; Yaqoob, Zahid; Badizadegan, Kamran; Dasari, Ramachandra R; Feld, Michael S

    2009-11-26

    Quantitative chemical analysis has served as a useful tool for understanding cellular metabolisms in biology. Among many physical properties used in chemical analysis, refractive index in particular has provided molecular concentration that is an important indicator for biological activities. In this report, we present a method of extracting full-field refractive index maps of live cells in their native states. We first record full-field optical thickness maps of living cells by Hilbert phase microscopy and then acquire physical thickness maps of the same cells using a custom-built confocal reflectance microscope. Full-field and axially averaged refractive index maps are acquired from the ratio of optical thickness to physical thickness. The accuracy of the axially averaged index measurement is 0.002. This approach can provide novel biological assays of label-free living cells in situ.

  4. Mitochondria Targeted Nanoscale Zeolitic Imidazole Framework-90 for ATP Imaging in Live Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deng, Jingjing; Wang, Kai; Wang, Ming; Yu, Ping; Mao, Lanqun

    2017-04-26

    Zeolitic imidazole frameworks (ZIFs) are an emerging class of functional porous materials with promising biomedical applications such as molecular sensing and intracellular drug delivery. We report herein the first example of using nanoscale ZIFs (i.e., ZIF-90), self-assembled from Zn 2+ and imidazole-2-carboxyaldehyde, to target subcellular mitochondria and image dynamics of mitochondrial ATP in live cells. Encapsulation of fluorescent Rhodamine B (RhB) into ZIF-90 suppresses the emission of RhB, while the competitive coordination between ATP and the metal node of ZIF-90 dissembles ZIFs, resulting in the release of RhB for ATP sensing. With this method, we are able to image mitochondrial ATP in live cells and study the ATP level fluctuation in cellular glycolysis and apoptosis processes. The strategy reported here could be further extended to tune nanoscale ZIFs inside live cells for targeted delivery of therapeutics to subcellular organelles for advanced biomedical applications.

  5. Live-cell super-resolution imaging of intrinsically fast moving flagellates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Glogger, M; Subota, I; Spindler, M-C; Engstler, M; Fenz, S F; Stichler, S; Bertlein, S; Teßmar, J; Groll, J

    2017-01-01

    Recent developments in super-resolution microscopy make it possible to resolve structures in biological cells at a spatial resolution of a few nm and observe dynamical processes with a temporal resolution of ms to μ s. However, the optimal structural resolution requires repeated illumination cycles and is thus limited to chemically fixed cells. For live cell applications substantial improvement over classical Abbe-limited imaging can already be obtained in adherent or slow moving cells. Nonetheless, a large group of cells are fast moving and thus could not yet be addressed with live cell super-resolution microscopy. These include flagellate pathogens like African trypanosomes, the causative agents of sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in livestock. Here, we present an embedding method based on a in situ forming cytocompatible UV-crosslinked hydrogel. The fast cross-linking hydrogel immobilizes trypanosomes efficiently to allow microscopy on the nanoscale. We characterized both the trypanosomes and the hydrogel with respect to their autofluorescence properties and found them suitable for single-molecule fluorescence microscopy (SMFM). As a proof of principle, SMFM was applied to super-resolve a structure inside the living trypanosome. We present an image of a flagellar axoneme component recorded by using the intrinsic blinking behavior of eYFP. (paper)

  6. In-vitro analysis of APA microcapsules for oral delivery of live bacterial cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, H; Ouyang, W; Jones, M; Haque, T; Lawuyi, B; Prakash, S

    2005-08-01

    Oral administration of microcapsules containing live bacterial cells has potential as an alternative therapy for several diseases. This article evaluates the suitability of the alginate-poly-L-lysine-alginate (APA) microcapsules for oral delivery of live bacterial cells, in-vitro, using a dynamic simulated human gastro-intestinal (GI) model. Results showed that the APA microcapsules were morphologically stable in the simulated stomach conditions, but did not retain their structural integrity after a 3-day exposure in simulated human GI media. The microbial populations of the tested bacterial cells and the activities of the tested enzymes in the simulated human GI suspension were not substantially altered by the presence of the APA microcapsules, suggesting that there were no significant adverse effects of oral administration of the APA microcapsules on the flora of the human gastrointestinal tract. When the APA microcapsules containing Lactobacillus plantarum 80 (LP80) were challenged in the simulated gastric medium (pH = 2.0), 80.0% of the encapsulated cells remained viable after a 5-min incubation; however, the viability decreased considerably (8.3%) after 15 min and dropped to 2.6% after 30 min and lower than 0.2% after 60 min, indicating the limitations of the currently obtainable APA membrane for oral delivery of live bacteria. Further in-vivo studies are required before conclusions can be made concerning the inadequacy of APA microcapsules for oral delivery of live bacterial cells.

  7. Engineering and exploitation of a fluorescent HIV-1 gp120 for live cell CD4 binding assays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Costantini, Lindsey M. [Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 (United States); Irvin, Susan C. [Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 (United States); Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 (United States); Kennedy, Steven C. [Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 (United States); Guo, Feng [Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 (United States); Goldstein, Harris; Herold, Betsy C. [Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 (United States); Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 (United States); Snapp, Erik L., E-mail: erik-lee.snapp@einstein.yu.edu [Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461 (United States)

    2015-02-15

    The HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein, gp120, binds the host cell receptor, CD4, in the initial step of HIV viral entry and infection. This process is an appealing target for the development of inhibitory drugs and neutralizing antibodies. To study gp120 binding and intracellular trafficking, we engineered a fluorescent fusion of the humanized gp120 JRFL HIV-1 variant and GFP. Gp120-sfGFP is glycosylated with human sugars, robustly expressed, and secreted from cultured human cells. Protein dynamics, quality control, and trafficking can be visualized in live cells. The fusion protein can be readily modified with different gp120 variants or fluorescent proteins. Finally, secreted gp120-sfGFP enables a sensitive and easy binding assay that can quantitatively screen potential inhibitors of gp120-CD4 binding on live cells via fluorescence imaging or laser scanning cytometry. This adaptable research tool should aid in studies of gp120 cell biology and the development of novel anti-HIV drugs. - Highlights: • Development of fluorescent protein labeled HIV-1 envelope gp120. • Imaging of gp120 dynamics and trafficking in live cells. • Quantitative visual assay of antibody-mediated inhibition of gp120 binding to CD4 on live cells.

  8. Engineering and exploitation of a fluorescent HIV-1 gp120 for live cell CD4 binding assays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Costantini, Lindsey M.; Irvin, Susan C.; Kennedy, Steven C.; Guo, Feng; Goldstein, Harris; Herold, Betsy C.; Snapp, Erik L.

    2015-01-01

    The HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein, gp120, binds the host cell receptor, CD4, in the initial step of HIV viral entry and infection. This process is an appealing target for the development of inhibitory drugs and neutralizing antibodies. To study gp120 binding and intracellular trafficking, we engineered a fluorescent fusion of the humanized gp120 JRFL HIV-1 variant and GFP. Gp120-sfGFP is glycosylated with human sugars, robustly expressed, and secreted from cultured human cells. Protein dynamics, quality control, and trafficking can be visualized in live cells. The fusion protein can be readily modified with different gp120 variants or fluorescent proteins. Finally, secreted gp120-sfGFP enables a sensitive and easy binding assay that can quantitatively screen potential inhibitors of gp120-CD4 binding on live cells via fluorescence imaging or laser scanning cytometry. This adaptable research tool should aid in studies of gp120 cell biology and the development of novel anti-HIV drugs. - Highlights: • Development of fluorescent protein labeled HIV-1 envelope gp120. • Imaging of gp120 dynamics and trafficking in live cells. • Quantitative visual assay of antibody-mediated inhibition of gp120 binding to CD4 on live cells

  9. Planar Optical Nanoantennas Resolve Cholesterol-Dependent Nanoscale Heterogeneities in the Plasma Membrane of Living Cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Regmi, Raju; Winkler, Pamina M.; Flauraud, Valentin; Borgman, Kyra J. E.; Manzo, Carlo; Brugger, Jürgen; Rigneault, Hervé; Wenger, Jérôme; García-Parajo, María F.

    2017-10-01

    Optical nanoantennas can efficiently confine light into nanoscopic hotspots, enabling single-molecule detection sensitivity at biological relevant conditions. This innovative approach to breach the diffraction limit offers a versatile platform to investigate the dynamics of individual biomolecules in living cell membranes and their partitioning into cholesterol-dependent lipid nanodomains. Here, we present optical nanoantenna arrays with accessible surface hotspots to study the characteristic diffusion dynamics of phosphoethanolamine (PE) and sphingomyelin (SM) in the plasma membrane of living cells at the nanoscale. Fluorescence burst analysis and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy performed on nanoantennas of different gap sizes show that, unlike PE, SM is transiently trapped in cholesterol-enriched nanodomains of 10 nm diameter with short characteristic times around 100 {\\mu}s. The removal of cholesterol led to the free diffusion of SM, consistent with the dispersion of nanodomains. Our results are consistent with the existence of highly transient and fluctuating nanoscale assemblies enriched by cholesterol and sphingolipids in living cell membranes, also known as lipid rafts. Quantitative data on sphingolipids partitioning into lipid rafts is crucial to understand the spatiotemporal heterogeneous organization of transient molecular complexes on the membrane of living cells at the nanoscale. The proposed technique is fully biocompatible and thus provides various opportunities for biophysics and live cell research to reveal details that remain hidden in confocal diffraction-limited measurements.

  10. Application of confocal Raman micro-spectroscopy for label-free monitoring of oxidative stress in living bronchial cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Surmacki, Jakub M.; Quirós Gonzalez, Isabel; Bohndiek, Sarah E.

    2018-02-01

    Oxidative stress in cancer is implicated in tumor progression, being associated with increased therapy resistance and metastasis. Conventional approaches for monitoring oxidative stress in tissue such as high-performance liquid chromatography and immunohistochemistry are bulk measurements and destroy the sample, meaning that longitudinal monitoring of cancer cell heterogeneity remains elusive. Raman spectroscopy has the potential to overcome this challenge, providing a chemically specific, label free readout from single living cells. Here, we applied a standardized protocol for label-free confocal Raman micro-spectroscopy in living cells to monitor oxidative stress in bronchial cells. We used a quartz substrate in a commercial cell chamber contained within a microscope incubator providing culture media for cell maintenance. We studied the effect of a potent reactive oxygen species inducer, tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP), and antioxidant, N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) on living cells from a human bronchial epithelial cells (HBEC). We found that the Raman bands corresponding to nucleic acids, proteins and lipids were significantly different (pmicro-spectroscopy may be able to monitor the biological impact of oxidative and reductive processes in cells, hence enabling longitudinal studies of oxidative stress in therapy resistance and metastasis at the single cell level.

  11. Intra-osseous injection of donor mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) into the bone marrow in living donor kidney transplantation; a pilot study

    OpenAIRE

    Lee, Hyunah; Park, Jae Berm; Lee, Sanghoon; Baek, Soyoung; Kim, HyunSoo; Kim, Sung Joo

    2013-01-01

    Background Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multi-potent non-hematopoietic progenitor cells possessing an immune-regulatory function, with suppression of proliferation of activated lymphocytes. In this study, adult living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT) recipients were given MSCs derived from the donor bone marrow to evaluate the safety and the feasibility of immunological changes related to the intra-osseous injection of MSC into the bone marrow. Methods MSCs were derived from negative ...

  12. Determination of Peroxisomal pH in Living Mammalian Cells Using pHRed.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Godinho, Luis F; Schrader, Michael

    2017-01-01

    Organelle pH homeostasis is crucial for maintaining proper cellular function. The nature of the peroxisomal pH remains somewhat controversial, with several studies reporting conflicting results. Here, we describe in detail a rapid and accurate method for the measurement of peroxisomal pH, using the pHRed sensor protein and confocal microscopy of living mammalian cells. pHRed, a ratiometric sensor of pH, is targeted to the peroxisomes by virtue of a C-terminal targeting sequence. The probe has a maximum fluorescence emission at 610 nm while exhibiting dual excitation peaks at 440 and 585 nm, allowing for ratiometric imaging and determination of intracellular pH in live cell microscopy.

  13. Label-free and live cell imaging by interferometric scattering microscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Jin-Sung; Lee, Il-Buem; Moon, Hyeon-Min; Joo, Jong-Hyeon; Kim, Kyoung-Hoon; Hong, Seok-Cheol; Cho, Minhaeng

    2018-03-14

    Despite recent remarkable advances in microscopic techniques, it still remains very challenging to directly observe the complex structure of cytoplasmic organelles in live cells without a fluorescent label. Here we report label-free and live-cell imaging of mammalian cell, Escherischia coli , and yeast, using interferometric scattering microscopy, which reveals the underlying structures of a variety of cytoplasmic organelles as well as the underside structure of the cells. The contact areas of the cells attached onto a glass substrate, e.g. , focal adhesions and filopodia, are clearly discernible. We also found a variety of fringe-like features in the cytoplasmic area, which may reflect the folded structures of cytoplasmic organelles. We thus anticipate that the label-free interferometric scattering microscopy can be used as a powerful tool to shed interferometric light on in vivo structures and dynamics of various intracellular phenomena.

  14. The lived experience of autologous stem cell-transplanted patients: Post-transplantation and before discharge.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alnasser, Qasem; Abu Kharmah, Salahel Deen; Attia, Manal; Aljafari, Akram; Agyekum, Felicia; Ahmed, Falak Aftab

    2018-04-01

    To explore the lived experience of the patients post-haematopoietic stem cell transplantation and specifically after engraftment and before discharge. Patients post-stem cell transplantation experience significant changes in all life aspects. Previous studies carried out by other researchers focused mainly on the postdischarge experience, where patients reported their perceptions that have always been affected by the life post-transplantation and influenced by their surroundings. The lived experience of patients, specifically after engraftment and prior to discharge (the "transition" phase), has not been adequately explored in the literature. Doing so might provide greater insight into the cause of change post-haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. This study is a phenomenological description of the participants' perception about their lived experience post-haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The study used Giorgi's method of analysis. Through purposive sampling, 15 post-haematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients were recruited. Data were collected by individual interviews. Data were then analysed based on Giorgi's method of analysis to reveal the meaning of a phenomenon as experienced through the identification of essential themes. The analysis process revealed 12 core themes covered by four categories that detailed patients lived experience post-haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The four categories were general transplant experience, effects of transplantation, factors of stress alleviation and finally life post-transplantation. This study showed how the haematopoietic stem cell transplantation affected the patients' physical, psychological and spiritual well-being. Transplantation also impacted on the patients' way of thinking and perception of life. Attending to patients' needs during transplantation might help to alleviate the severity of the effects and therefore improve experience. Comprehensive information about transplantation needs

  15. Picosecond orientational dynamics of water in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tros, Martijn; Zheng, Linli; Hunger, Johannes; Bonn, Mischa; Bonn, Daniel; Smits, Gertien J; Woutersen, Sander

    2017-10-12

    Cells are extremely crowded, and a central question in biology is how this affects the intracellular water. Here, we use ultrafast vibrational spectroscopy and dielectric-relaxation spectroscopy to observe the random orientational motion of water molecules inside living cells of three prototypical organisms: Escherichia coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast), and spores of Bacillus subtilis. In all three organisms, most of the intracellular water exhibits the same random orientational motion as neat water (characteristic time constants ~9 and ~2 ps for the first-order and second-order orientational correlation functions), whereas a smaller fraction exhibits slower orientational dynamics. The fraction of slow intracellular water varies between organisms, ranging from ~20% in E. coli to ~45% in B. subtilis spores. Comparison with the water dynamics observed in solutions mimicking the chemical composition of (parts of) the cytosol shows that the slow water is bound mostly to proteins, and to a lesser extent to other biomolecules and ions.The cytoplasm's crowdedness leads one to expect that cell water is different from bulk water. By measuring the rotational motion of water molecules in living cells, Tros et al. find that apart from a small fraction of water solvating biomolecules, cell water has the same dynamics as bulk water.

  16. Live Cell Imaging and 3D Analysis of Angiotensin Receptor Type 1a Trafficking in Transfected Human Embryonic Kidney Cells Using Confocal Microscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kadam, Parnika; McAllister, Ryan; Urbach, Jeffrey S; Sandberg, Kathryn; Mueller, Susette C

    2017-03-27

    Live-cell imaging is used to simultaneously capture time-lapse images of angiotensin type 1a receptors (AT1aR) and intracellular compartments in transfected human embryonic kidney-293 (HEK) cells following stimulation with angiotensin II (Ang II). HEK cells are transiently transfected with plasmid DNA containing AT1aR tagged with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). Lysosomes are identified with a red fluorescent dye. Live-cell images are captured on a laser scanning confocal microscope after Ang II stimulation and analyzed by software in three dimensions (3D, voxels) over time. Live-cell imaging enables investigations into receptor trafficking and avoids confounds associated with fixation, and in particular, the loss or artefactual displacement of EGFP-tagged membrane receptors. Thus, as individual cells are tracked through time, the subcellular localization of receptors can be imaged and measured. Images must be acquired sufficiently rapidly to capture rapid vesicle movement. Yet, at faster imaging speeds, the number of photons collected is reduced. Compromises must also be made in the selection of imaging parameters like voxel size in order to gain imaging speed. Significant applications of live-cell imaging are to study protein trafficking, migration, proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, autophagy and protein-protein interaction and dynamics, to name but a few.

  17. Uptake of silica covered Quantum Dots into living cells: Long term vitality and morphology study on hyaluronic acid biomaterials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D'Amico, Michele; Fiorica, Calogero; Palumbo, Fabio Salvatore; Militello, Valeria; Leone, Maurizio; Dubertret, Benoit; Pitarresi, Giovanna; Giammona, Gaetano

    2016-01-01

    Quantum Dots (QDs) are promising very bright and stable fluorescent probes for optical studies in the biological field but water solubility and possible metal bio-contamination need to be addressed. In this work, a simple silica-QD hybrid system is prepared and the uptake in bovine chondrocytes living cells without any functionalization of the external protective silica shield is demonstrated. Moreover, long term treated cells vitality (up to 14 days) and the transfer of silica-QDs to the next cell generations are here reported. Confocal fluorescence microscopy was also used to determine the morphology of the so labelled cells and the relative silica-QDs distribution. Finally, we employ silica-QD stained chondrocytes to characterize, as proof of concept, hydrogels obtained from an amphiphilic derivative of hyaluronic acid (HA-EDA-C _1_8) functionalized with different amounts of the RGD peptide. - Highlights: • Non functionalized silica-quantum dots fluorescent nanoparticles uptake is observed. • Morphology studies of such cells could be done by confocal fluorescence microscopy. • Labelled chondrocytes are viable until at least 14 days. • RGD functionalized Hyaluronic Acid hydrogels are studied as cell scaffolds. • Chondrocyte are promptly attached on RGD-functionalized hydrogels.

  18. Uptake of silica covered Quantum Dots into living cells: Long term vitality and morphology study on hyaluronic acid biomaterials

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    D' Amico, Michele [Dip. Biomedico di Medicina Interna e Specialistica, Universitá degli Studi di Palermo, Piazza delle Cliniche, 2, 90127 Palermo (Italy); Dip. di Fisica e Chimica, Universitá degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 18, 90128 Palermo (Italy); Fiorica, Calogero, E-mail: calogero.fiorica@unipa.it [Dip. di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari e Biomolecolari, Sezione di Chimica e Tecnologie Farmaceutiche, Universitá degli Studi di Palermo, Via Archirafi, 28, 90136 Palermo (Italy); Palumbo, Fabio Salvatore [Dip. di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari e Biomolecolari, Sezione di Chimica e Tecnologie Farmaceutiche, Universitá degli Studi di Palermo, Via Archirafi, 28, 90136 Palermo (Italy); Militello, Valeria; Leone, Maurizio [Dip. di Fisica e Chimica, Universitá degli Studi di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 18, 90128 Palermo (Italy); Dubertret, Benoit [Laboratoire de Physique et d’Etude des Matèriaux, ESPCI-ParisTech, PSL Research University, Sorbonne Universitè UPMC Univ. Paris 06, CNRS, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris (France); Pitarresi, Giovanna; Giammona, Gaetano [Dip. di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari e Biomolecolari, Sezione di Chimica e Tecnologie Farmaceutiche, Universitá degli Studi di Palermo, Via Archirafi, 28, 90136 Palermo (Italy)

    2016-10-01

    Quantum Dots (QDs) are promising very bright and stable fluorescent probes for optical studies in the biological field but water solubility and possible metal bio-contamination need to be addressed. In this work, a simple silica-QD hybrid system is prepared and the uptake in bovine chondrocytes living cells without any functionalization of the external protective silica shield is demonstrated. Moreover, long term treated cells vitality (up to 14 days) and the transfer of silica-QDs to the next cell generations are here reported. Confocal fluorescence microscopy was also used to determine the morphology of the so labelled cells and the relative silica-QDs distribution. Finally, we employ silica-QD stained chondrocytes to characterize, as proof of concept, hydrogels obtained from an amphiphilic derivative of hyaluronic acid (HA-EDA-C {sub 18}) functionalized with different amounts of the RGD peptide. - Highlights: • Non functionalized silica-quantum dots fluorescent nanoparticles uptake is observed. • Morphology studies of such cells could be done by confocal fluorescence microscopy. • Labelled chondrocytes are viable until at least 14 days. • RGD functionalized Hyaluronic Acid hydrogels are studied as cell scaffolds. • Chondrocyte are promptly attached on RGD-functionalized hydrogels.

  19. Effects of high-gradient magnetic fields on living cell machinery

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Zablotskyy, V.; Lunov, O.; Kubinová, Šárka; Polyakova, T.; Syková, Eva; Dejneka, A.

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 49, č. 2016 (2016), s. 493003 ISSN 0022-3727 R&D Projects: GA MŠk(CZ) LO1309 Institutional support: RVO:68378041 Keywords : living cell * magnetic gradient force * cell mechanics * stem cell * magnetic field Subject RIV: FP - Other Medical Disciplines Impact factor: 2.588, year: 2016

  20. Optical imaging of non-fluorescent nanodiamonds in live cells using transient absorption microscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Tao; Lu, Feng; Streets, Aaron M; Fei, Peng; Quan, Junmin; Huang, Yanyi

    2013-06-07

    We directly observe non-fluorescent nanodiamonds in living cells using transient absorption microscopy. This label-free technology provides a novel modality to study the dynamic behavior of nanodiamonds inside the cells with intrinsic three-dimensional imaging capability. We apply this method to capture the cellular uptake of nanodiamonds under various conditions, confirming the endocytosis mechanism.

  1. Realignment process of actin stress fibers in single living cells studied by focused femtosecond laser irradiation

    OpenAIRE

    Yasukuni, Ryohei; Spitz, Jean-Alexis; Meallet-Renault, Rachel; Negishi, Takayuki; Tada, Takuji; Hosokawa, Yoichiroh; Asahi, Tsuyoshi; Shukunami, Chisa; Hiraki, Yuji; Masuhara, Hiroshi

    2007-01-01

    Three-dimensional dissection of a single actin stress fiber in a living cell was performed based on multi-photon absorption of a focused femtosecond laser pulse. The realignment process of an actin stress fiber was investigated after its direct cutting by a single-shot femtosecond laser pulse irradiation by high-speed transmission and fluorescence imaging methods. It was confirmed that mechanical force led by the femtosecond laser cutting propagates to entire cell through the cytockelton in a...

  2. Langerin negative dendritic cells promote potent CD8+ T-cell priming by skin delivery of live adenovirus vaccine microneedle arrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bachy, Veronique; Hervouet, Catherine; Becker, Pablo D; Chorro, Laurent; Carlin, Leo M; Herath, Shanthi; Papagatsias, Timos; Barbaroux, Jean-Baptiste; Oh, Sea-Jin; Benlahrech, Adel; Athanasopoulos, Takis; Dickson, George; Patterson, Steven; Kwon, Sung-Yun; Geissmann, Frederic; Klavinskis, Linda S

    2013-02-19

    Stabilization of virus protein structure and nucleic acid integrity is challenging yet essential to preserve the transcriptional competence of live recombinant viral vaccine vectors in the absence of a cold chain. When coupled with needle-free skin delivery, such a platform would address an unmet need in global vaccine coverage against HIV and other global pathogens. Herein, we show that a simple dissolvable microneedle array (MA) delivery system preserves the immunogenicity of vaccines encoded by live recombinant human adenovirus type 5 (rAdHu5). Specifically, dried rAdHu5 MA immunization induced CD8(+) T-cell expansion and multifunctional cytokine responses equipotent with conventional injectable routes of immunization. Intravital imaging demonstrated MA cargo distributed both in the epidermis and dermis, with acquisition by CD11c(+) dendritic cells (DCs) in the dermis. The MA immunizing properties were attributable to CD11c(+) MHCII(hi) CD8α(neg) epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM(neg)) CD11b(+) langerin (Lang; CD207)(neg) DCs, but neither Langerhans cells nor Lang(+) DCs were required for CD8(+) T-cell priming. This study demonstrates an important technical advance for viral vaccine vectors progressing to the clinic and provides insights into the mechanism of CD8(+) T-cell priming by live rAdHu5 MAs.

  3. A simple optical fiber device for quantitative fluorescence microscopy of single living cells

    OpenAIRE

    van Graft, M.; van Graft, Marja; Oosterhuis, B.; Oosterhuis, Bernard; van der Werf, Kees; de Grooth, B.G.; Greve, Jan

    1993-01-01

    simple and relatively inexpensive system is described for obtaining quantitative fluorescence measurements on single living cells loaded with a fluorescent probe to study cell physiological processes. The light emitted from the fluorescent cells is captured by and transported through an optical fiber. After passage through appropriate filters the light is measured using a photomultiplier tube. The optical fiber is mounted in one of the microscope outlets. Signals derived from the photomultipl...

  4. Cocompartmentation of proteins and K+ within the living cell

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kellermayer, M.; Ludany, A.; Jobst, K.; Szucs, G.; Trombitas, K.; Hazlewood, C.F.

    1986-01-01

    Monolayer H-50 tissue culture cells were treated with Triton X-100 and Brij 58 nonionic detergents, and their electron microscopic morphology along with the release of the intracellular proteins [ 35 S]methionine-labelled and 42 K-labelled K + were studied. Although Triton X-100 was more effective, both detergents removed the lipoid membranes within 5 min. The mobilization and solubilization of the cytoplasmic and nuclear proteins occurred much faster with Triton X-100 than with Brij 58. In Triton X-100-treated cells, the loss of K + was complete within 2 min. The loss of K + from the Brij 58-treated cells was complete only after 10 min and the mobilization of K + showed sigmoid-type release kinetics. These results support the view that most of K + and diffusible proteins are not freely dissolved in the cellular water, but they are cocompartmentalized inside the living cell

  5. Tracking single cells in live animals using a photoconvertible near-infrared cell membrane label.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carlson, Alicia L; Fujisaki, Joji; Wu, Juwell; Runnels, Judith M; Turcotte, Raphaël; Spencer, Joel A; Celso, Cristina Lo; Scadden, David T; Strom, Terry B; Lin, Charles P

    2013-01-01

    We describe a novel photoconversion technique to track individual cells in vivo using a commercial lipophilic membrane dye, DiR. We show that DiR exhibits a permanent fluorescence emission shift (photoconversion) after light exposure and does not reacquire the original color over time. Ratiometric imaging can be used to distinguish photoconverted from non-converted cells with high sensitivity. Combining the use of this photoconvertible dye with intravital microscopy, we tracked the division of individual hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells within the calvarium bone marrow of live mice. We also studied the peripheral differentiation of individual T cells by tracking the gain or loss of FoxP3-GFP expression, a marker of the immune suppressive function of CD4(+) T cells. With the near-infrared photoconvertible membrane dye, the entire visible spectral range is available for simultaneous use with other fluorescent proteins to monitor gene expression or to trace cell lineage commitment in vivo with high spatial and temporal resolution.

  6. Effect of infrared light on live blood cells: Role of β-carotene.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barkur, Surekha; Bankapur, Aseefhali; Chidangil, Santhosh; Mathur, Deepak

    2017-06-01

    We have utilized Raman tweezers to measure and assign micro-Raman spectra of optically trapped, live red blood cells (RBCs), white blood cells (WBCs) and platelets. Various types of WBCs- both granulocytes, lymphocytes, and their different types have been studied. The Raman bands are assigned to different biomolecules of blood cells. The Raman spectra thus obtained has been enabled detection of β-carotene in these blood cells, the spectral features of which act as a signature that facilitates experimental probing of the effect of 785nm laser light on different blood cells as a function of incident laser power in the mW range. The spectral changes that we obtain upon laser irradiation indicate that, both haemoglobin as well as the cell membrane sustains damage. In case of lymphocytes and platelets the peaks corresponding to β-carotene showed drastic changes. Thorough analysis of the spectral changes indicates possibility of free radical induced damage of β-carotene in lymphocytes and platelets. Among different blood cells, RBCs have a power threshold of only 10mW. The power threshold for other types of blood cells is somewhat higher, but always below about 30mW. These values are likely to serve as useful guides for Raman tweezers based experiments on live cells. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  7. Weak Ergodicity Breaking of Receptor Motion in Living Cells Stemming from Random Diffusivity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manzo, Carlo; Torreno-Pina, Juan A.; Massignan, Pietro; Lapeyre, Gerald J.; Lewenstein, Maciej; Garcia Parajo, Maria F.

    2015-01-01

    Molecular transport in living systems regulates numerous processes underlying biological function. Although many cellular components exhibit anomalous diffusion, only recently has the subdiffusive motion been associated with nonergodic behavior. These findings have stimulated new questions for their implications in statistical mechanics and cell biology. Is nonergodicity a common strategy shared by living systems? Which physical mechanisms generate it? What are its implications for biological function? Here, we use single-particle tracking to demonstrate that the motion of dendritic cell-specific intercellular adhesion molecule 3-grabbing nonintegrin (DC-SIGN), a receptor with unique pathogen-recognition capabilities, reveals nonergodic subdiffusion on living-cell membranes In contrast to previous studies, this behavior is incompatible with transient immobilization, and, therefore, it cannot be interpreted according to continuous-time random-walk theory. We show that the receptor undergoes changes of diffusivity, consistent with the current view of the cell membrane as a highly dynamic and diverse environment. Simulations based on a model of an ordinary random walk in complex media quantitatively reproduce all our observations, pointing toward diffusion heterogeneity as the cause of DC-SIGN behavior. By studying different receptor mutants, we further correlate receptor motion to its molecular structure, thus establishing a strong link between nonergodicity and biological function. These results underscore the role of disorder in cell membranes and its connection with function regulation. Because of its generality, our approach offers a framework to interpret anomalous transport in other complex media where dynamic heterogeneity might play a major role, such as those found, e.g., in soft condensed matter, geology, and ecology.

  8. Fluorescent labelling of intestinal epithelial cells reveals independent long-lived intestinal stem cells in a crypt

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Horita, Nobukatsu [Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (Japan); Tsuchiya, Kiichiro, E-mail: kii.gast@tmd.ac.jp [Department of Advanced Therapeutics for Gastrointestinal Diseases, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (Japan); Hayashi, Ryohei [Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (Japan); Department of Gastroenterology and Metabolism, Hiroshima University (Japan); Fukushima, Keita; Hibiya, Shuji; Fukuda, Masayoshi; Kano, Yoshihito; Mizutani, Tomohiro; Nemoto, Yasuhiro; Yui, Shiro [Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (Japan); Okamoto, Ryuichi; Nakamura, Tetsuya [Department of Advanced Therapeutics for Gastrointestinal Diseases, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (Japan); Watanabe, Mamoru [Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University (Japan)

    2014-11-28

    Highlights: • Lentivirus mixed with Matrigel enables direct infection of intestinal organoids. • Our original approach allows the marking of a single stem cell in a crypt. • Time-lapse imaging shows the dynamics of a single stem cell. • Our lentivirus transgene system demonstrates plural long-lived stem cells in a crypt. - Abstract: Background and aims: The dynamics of intestinal stem cells are crucial for regulation of intestinal function and maintenance. Although crypt stem cells have been identified in the intestine by genetic marking methods, identification of plural crypt stem cells has not yet been achieved as they are visualised in the same colour. Methods: Intestinal organoids were transferred into Matrigel® mixed with lentivirus encoding mCherry. The dynamics of mCherry-positive cells was analysed using time-lapse imaging, and the localisation of mCherry-positive cells was analysed using 3D immunofluorescence. Results: We established an original method for the introduction of a transgene into an organoid generated from mouse small intestine that resulted in continuous fluorescence of the mCherry protein in a portion of organoid cells. Three-dimensional analysis using confocal microscopy showed a single mCherry-positive cell in an organoid crypt that had been cultured for >1 year, which suggested the presence of long-lived mCherry-positive and -negative stem cells in the same crypt. Moreover, a single mCherry-positive stem cell in a crypt gave rise to both crypt base columnar cells and transit amplifying cells. Each mCherry-positive and -negative cell contributed to the generation of organoids. Conclusions: The use of our original lentiviral transgene system to mark individual organoid crypt stem cells showed that long-lived plural crypt stem cells might independently serve as intestinal epithelial cells, resulting in the formation of a completely functional villus.

  9. Fluorescent labelling of intestinal epithelial cells reveals independent long-lived intestinal stem cells in a crypt

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Horita, Nobukatsu; Tsuchiya, Kiichiro; Hayashi, Ryohei; Fukushima, Keita; Hibiya, Shuji; Fukuda, Masayoshi; Kano, Yoshihito; Mizutani, Tomohiro; Nemoto, Yasuhiro; Yui, Shiro; Okamoto, Ryuichi; Nakamura, Tetsuya; Watanabe, Mamoru

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • Lentivirus mixed with Matrigel enables direct infection of intestinal organoids. • Our original approach allows the marking of a single stem cell in a crypt. • Time-lapse imaging shows the dynamics of a single stem cell. • Our lentivirus transgene system demonstrates plural long-lived stem cells in a crypt. - Abstract: Background and aims: The dynamics of intestinal stem cells are crucial for regulation of intestinal function and maintenance. Although crypt stem cells have been identified in the intestine by genetic marking methods, identification of plural crypt stem cells has not yet been achieved as they are visualised in the same colour. Methods: Intestinal organoids were transferred into Matrigel® mixed with lentivirus encoding mCherry. The dynamics of mCherry-positive cells was analysed using time-lapse imaging, and the localisation of mCherry-positive cells was analysed using 3D immunofluorescence. Results: We established an original method for the introduction of a transgene into an organoid generated from mouse small intestine that resulted in continuous fluorescence of the mCherry protein in a portion of organoid cells. Three-dimensional analysis using confocal microscopy showed a single mCherry-positive cell in an organoid crypt that had been cultured for >1 year, which suggested the presence of long-lived mCherry-positive and -negative stem cells in the same crypt. Moreover, a single mCherry-positive stem cell in a crypt gave rise to both crypt base columnar cells and transit amplifying cells. Each mCherry-positive and -negative cell contributed to the generation of organoids. Conclusions: The use of our original lentiviral transgene system to mark individual organoid crypt stem cells showed that long-lived plural crypt stem cells might independently serve as intestinal epithelial cells, resulting in the formation of a completely functional villus

  10. In Situ Live-Cell Nucleus Fluorescence Labeling with Bioinspired Fluorescent Probes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ding, Pan; Wang, Houyu; Song, Bin; Ji, Xiaoyuan; Su, Yuanyuan; He, Yao

    2017-08-01

    Fluorescent imaging techniques for visualization of nuclear structure and function in live cells are fundamentally important for exploring major cellular events. The ideal cellular labeling method is capable of realizing label-free, in situ, real-time, and long-term nucleus labeling in live cells, which can fully obtain the nucleus-relative information and effectively alleviate negative effects of alien probes on cellular metabolism. However, current established fluorescent probes-based strategies (e.g., fluorescent proteins-, organic dyes-, fluorescent organic/inorganic nanoparticles-based imaging techniques) are unable to simultaneously realize label-free, in situ, long-term, and real-time nucleus labeling, resulting in inevitable difficulties in fully visualizing nuclear structure and function in live cells. To this end, we present a type of bioinspired fluorescent probes, which are highly efficacious for in situ and label-free tracking of nucleus in long-term and real-time manners. Typically, the bioinspired polydopamine (PDA) nanoparticles, served as fluorescent probes, can be readily synthesized in situ within live cell nucleus without any further modifications under physiological conditions (37 °C, pH ∼7.4). Compared with other conventional nuclear dyes (e.g., propidium iodide (PI), Hoechst), superior spectroscopic properties (e.g., quantum yield of ∼35.8% and high photostability) and low cytotoxicity of PDA-based probes enable long-term (e.g., 3 h) fluorescence tracking of nucleus. We also demonstrate the generality of this type of bioinspired fluorescent probes in different cell lines and complex biological samples.

  11. A Microfluidic Platform for Correlative Live-Cell and Super-Resolution Microscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tam, Johnny; Cordier, Guillaume Alan; Bálint, Štefan; Sandoval Álvarez, Ángel; Borbely, Joseph Steven; Lakadamyali, Melike

    2014-01-01

    Recently, super-resolution microscopy methods such as stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) have enabled visualization of subcellular structures below the optical resolution limit. Due to the poor temporal resolution, however, these methods have mostly been used to image fixed cells or dynamic processes that evolve on slow time-scales. In particular, fast dynamic processes and their relationship to the underlying ultrastructure or nanoscale protein organization cannot be discerned. To overcome this limitation, we have recently developed a correlative and sequential imaging method that combines live-cell and super-resolution microscopy. This approach adds dynamic background to ultrastructural images providing a new dimension to the interpretation of super-resolution data. However, currently, it suffers from the need to carry out tedious steps of sample preparation manually. To alleviate this problem, we implemented a simple and versatile microfluidic platform that streamlines the sample preparation steps in between live-cell and super-resolution imaging. The platform is based on a microfluidic chip with parallel, miniaturized imaging chambers and an automated fluid-injection device, which delivers a precise amount of a specified reagent to the selected imaging chamber at a specific time within the experiment. We demonstrate that this system can be used for live-cell imaging, automated fixation, and immunostaining of adherent mammalian cells in situ followed by STORM imaging. We further demonstrate an application by correlating mitochondrial dynamics, morphology, and nanoscale mitochondrial protein distribution in live and super-resolution images. PMID:25545548

  12. Quantitative imaging of glutathione in live cells using a reversible reaction-based ratiometric fluorescent probe

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glutathione (GSH) plays an important role in maintaining redox homeostasis inside cells. Currently, there are no methods available to quantitatively assess the GSH concentration in live cells. Live cell fluorescence imaging revolutionized the understanding of cell biology and has become an indispens...

  13. Interaction of multi-functional silver nanoparticles with living cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sur, Ilknur; Cam, Dilek; Kahraman, Mehmet; Culha, Mustafa; Baysal, Asli

    2010-01-01

    Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely used in household products and in medicine due to their antibacterial and to wound healing properties. In recent years, there is also an effort for their use in biomedical imaging and photothermal therapy. The primary reason behind the effort for their utility in biomedicine and therapy is their unique plasmonic properties and easy surface chemistry for a variety of functionalizations. In this study, AgNPs modified with glucose, lactose, oligonucleotides and combinations of these ligands are investigated for their cytotoxicity and cellular uptake in living non-cancer (L929) and cancer (A549) cells. It is found that the chemical nature of the ligand strongly influences the toxicity and cellular uptake into the model cells. While the lactose-and glucose-modified AgNPs enter the L929 cells at about the same rate, a significant increase in the rate of lactose-modified AgNPs into the A549 cells is observed. The binding of oligonucleotides along with the carbohydrate on the AgNP surfaces influences the differential uptake rate pattern into the cells. The cytotoxicity study with the modified AgNPs reveals that only naked AgNPs influence the viability of the A549 cells. The findings of this study may provide the key to developing effective applications in medicine such as cancer therapy.

  14. Fluorescent CdSe/ZnS nanocrystal-peptide conjugates for long-term, nontoxic imaging and nuclear targeting in living cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, Fanqing; Gerion, Daniele

    2004-01-01

    One of the biggest challenges in cell biology is the imaging of living cells. For this purpose, the most commonly used visualization tool is fluorescent markers. However, conventional labels, such as organic fluorescent dyes or green fluorescent proteins (GFP), lack the photostability to allow the tracking of cellular events that happen over minutes to days. In addition, they are either toxic to cells (dyes), or difficult to construct and manipulate (GFP). We report here the use of a new class of fluorescent labels, silanized CdSe/ZnS nanocrystal-peptide conjugates, for imaging the nuclei of living cells. CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals, or so called quantum dots (qdots), are extremely photostable, and have been used extensively in cellular imaging of fixed cells. However, most of the studies about living cells so far have been concerned only with particle entry into the cytoplasm or the localization of receptors on the cell membrane. Specific targeting of qdots to the nucleus of living cells ha s not been reported in previous studies, due to the lack of a targeting mechanism and proper particle size. Here we demonstrate for the first time the construction of a CdSe/ZnS nanocrystal-peptide conjugate that carries the SV40 large T antigen nuclear localization signal (NLS), and the transfection of the complex into living cells. By a novel adaptation of commonly used cell transfection techniques for qdots, we were able to introduce and retain the NLS-qdots conjugate in living cells for up to a week without detectable negative cellular effects. Moreover, we can visualize the movement of the CdSe/ZnS nanocrystal-peptide conjugates from cytoplasm to the nucleus, and the accumulation of the complex in the cell nucleus, over a long observation time period. This report opens the door for using qdots to visualize long-term biological events that happen in the cell nucleus, and provides a new nontoxic, long-term imaging platform for cell nuclear processes

  15. Characterizing the interactions between prolyl isomerase pin1 and phosphatase inhibitor-2 in living cells with FRET and FCS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Yuansheng; Wang, Lifu; Jyothikumar, Vinod; Brautigan, David L.; Periasamy, Ammasi

    2012-03-01

    Phosphatase inhibitor-2 (I2) was discovered as a regulator of protein Ser/Thr phosphatase-1 and is conserved from yeast to human. Binding between purified recombinant I2 from different species and the prolyl isomerase Pin1 has been demonstrated with pull-down assays, size exclusion chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Despite this, questions persist as to whether these proteins associate together in living cells. In this study, we prepared fluorescent protein (FP) fusions of I2 and Pin1 and employed both Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) and Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) imaging techniques to characterize their interactions in living cells. In both intensity-based and time-resolved FRET studies, we observed FRET uniformly across whole cells co-expressing I2-Cerulean and Pin1-Venus that was significantly higher than in negative controls expressing Cerulean FP (without fusing to I2) as the FRET donor and Pin1-Venus, showing a specific interaction between I2-Cerulean and Pin1-Venus in living cells. We also observed the co-diffusion of I2-Cerulean and Pin1-mCherry in Fluorescence Cross Correlation Spectroscopy (FCCS) measurements. We further showed that I2 itself as well as I2-Pin1 formed complexes in living cells (predicted from in vitro studies) via a quantitative FRET assay, and demonstrated from FCS measurements that both I2 and Pin1 (fused to Cerulean) are highly mobile in living cells.

  16. Turn-on fluorogenic and chromogenic detection of Fe(III) and its application in living cell imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sivaraman, Gandhi; Sathiyaraja, Vijayaraj; Chellappa, Duraisamy

    2014-01-01

    Two rhodamine-based sensors RDI-1, RDI-2 was designed and synthesized by incorporation of the rhodamine 6G fluorophore and 2-formyl imidazole as the recognizing unit via the imine linkages. RDI-1, RDI-2 exhibits very high selectivity and an excellent sensitivity towards Fe(III) ions in aqueous buffer solution on compared with other probes. The color change from colorless to pink and turn-on fluorescence after binding with iron (III) was observed. Based on jobs plot and ESI-MS studies, the 1:1 binding mode was proposed. Live cell imaging experiments with each probe showed that these probes widely applicable to detect Fe 3+ in living cells. -- Highlights: • Two rhodamine based probes was synthesized and used to recognize iron (III). • The chemosensors can be applied to detect iron(III) ions by color and turn-on fluorescent changes. • The very low detection limit was reported. • The applicability of these probes for live cell fluorescence imaging was studied

  17. Turn-on fluorogenic and chromogenic detection of Fe(III) and its application in living cell imaging

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sivaraman, Gandhi; Sathiyaraja, Vijayaraj; Chellappa, Duraisamy, E-mail: dcmku123@gmail.com

    2014-01-15

    Two rhodamine-based sensors RDI-1, RDI-2 was designed and synthesized by incorporation of the rhodamine 6G fluorophore and 2-formyl imidazole as the recognizing unit via the imine linkages. RDI-1, RDI-2 exhibits very high selectivity and an excellent sensitivity towards Fe(III) ions in aqueous buffer solution on compared with other probes. The color change from colorless to pink and turn-on fluorescence after binding with iron (III) was observed. Based on jobs plot and ESI-MS studies, the 1:1 binding mode was proposed. Live cell imaging experiments with each probe showed that these probes widely applicable to detect Fe{sup 3+} in living cells. -- Highlights: • Two rhodamine based probes was synthesized and used to recognize iron (III). • The chemosensors can be applied to detect iron(III) ions by color and turn-on fluorescent changes. • The very low detection limit was reported. • The applicability of these probes for live cell fluorescence imaging was studied.

  18. Quantification of GPCR internalization by single-molecule microscopy in living cells.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Serge, A.; Keijzer, S. de; Hemert, F. Van; Hickman, M.R.; Hereld, D.; Spaink, H.P.; Schmidt, T.; Snaar-Jagalska, B.E.

    2011-01-01

    Receptor internalization upon ligand stimulation is a key component of a cell's response and allows a cell to correctly sense its environment. Novel fluorescent methods have enabled the direct visualization of the agonist-stimulated G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) trafficking in living cells.

  19. Transverse mechanical properties of cell walls of single living plant cells probed by laser-generated acoustic waves.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gadalla, Atef; Dehoux, Thomas; Audoin, Bertrand

    2014-05-01

    Probing the mechanical properties of plant cell wall is crucial to understand tissue dynamics. However, the exact symmetry of the mechanical properties of this anisotropic fiber-reinforced composite remains uncertain. For this reason, biologically relevant measurements of the stiffness coefficients on individual living cells are a challenge. For this purpose, we have developed the single-cell optoacoustic nanoprobe (SCOPE) technique, which uses laser-generated acoustic waves to probe the stiffness, thickness and viscosity of live single-cell subcompartments. This all-optical technique offers a sub-micrometer lateral resolution, nanometer in-depth resolution, and allows the non-contact measurement of the mechanical properties of live turgid tissues without any assumption of mechanical symmetry. SCOPE experiments reveal that single-cell wall transverse stiffness in the direction perpendicular to the epidermis layer of onion cells is close to that of cellulose. This observation demonstrates that cellulose microfibrils are the main load-bearing structure in this direction, and suggests strong bonding of microfibrils by hemicelluloses. Altogether our measurement of the viscosity at high frequencies suggests that the rheology of the wall is dominated by glass-like dynamics. From a comparison with literature, we attribute this behavior to the influence of the pectin matrix. SCOPE's ability to unravel cell rheology and cell anisotropy defines a new class of experiments to enlighten cell nano-mechanics.

  20. Live-cell super-resolution imaging of intrinsically fast moving flagellates

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glogger, M.; Stichler, S.; Subota, I.; Bertlein, S.; Spindler, M.-C.; Teßmar, J.; Groll, J.; Engstler, M.; Fenz, S. F.

    2017-02-01

    Recent developments in super-resolution microscopy make it possible to resolve structures in biological cells at a spatial resolution of a few nm and observe dynamical processes with a temporal resolution of ms to μs. However, the optimal structural resolution requires repeated illumination cycles and is thus limited to chemically fixed cells. For live cell applications substantial improvement over classical Abbe-limited imaging can already be obtained in adherent or slow moving cells. Nonetheless, a large group of cells are fast moving and thus could not yet be addressed with live cell super-resolution microscopy. These include flagellate pathogens like African trypanosomes, the causative agents of sleeping sickness in humans and nagana in livestock. Here, we present an embedding method based on a in situ forming cytocompatible UV-crosslinked hydrogel. The fast cross-linking hydrogel immobilizes trypanosomes efficiently to allow microscopy on the nanoscale. We characterized both the trypanosomes and the hydrogel with respect to their autofluorescence properties and found them suitable for single-molecule fluorescence microscopy (SMFM). As a proof of principle, SMFM was applied to super-resolve a structure inside the living trypanosome. We present an image of a flagellar axoneme component recorded by using the intrinsic blinking behavior of eYFP. , which features invited work from the best early-career researchers working within the scope of J Phys D. This project is part of the Journal of Physics series’ 50th anniversary celebrations in 2017. Susanne Fenz was selected by the Editorial Board of J Phys D as an Emerging Talent/Leader.

  1. Microfluidic Devices for Terahertz Spectroscopy of Live Cells Toward Lab-on-a-Chip Applications

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qi Tang

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available THz spectroscopy is an emerging technique for studying the dynamics and interactions of cells and biomolecules, but many practical challenges still remain in experimental studies. We present a prototype of simple and inexpensive cell-trapping microfluidic chip for THz spectroscopic study of live cells. Cells are transported, trapped and concentrated into the THz exposure region by applying an AC bias signal while the chip maintains a steady temperature at 37 °C by resistive heating. We conduct some preliminary experiments on E. coli and T-cell solution and compare the transmission spectra of empty channels, channels filled with aqueous media only, and channels filled with aqueous media with un-concentrated and concentrated cells.

  2. Axial tomography in live cell laser microscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richter, Verena; Bruns, Sarah; Bruns, Thomas; Weber, Petra; Wagner, Michael; Cremer, Christoph; Schneckenburger, Herbert

    2017-09-01

    Single cell microscopy in a three-dimensional (3-D) environment is reported. Cells are grown in an agarose culture gel, located within microcapillaries and observed from different sides after adaptation of an innovative device for sample rotation. Thus, z-stacks can be recorded by confocal microscopy in different directions and used for illustration in 3-D. This gives additional information, since cells or organelles that appear superimposed in one direction, may be well resolved in another one. The method is tested and validated with single cells expressing a membrane or a mitochondrially associated green fluorescent protein, or cells accumulating fluorescent quantum dots. In addition, axial tomography supports measurements of cellular uptake and distribution of the anticancer drug doxorubicin in the nucleus (2 to 6 h after incubation) or the cytoplasm (24 h). This paper discusses that upon cell rotation an enhanced optical resolution in lateral direction compared to axial direction can be utilized to obtain an improved effective 3-D resolution, which represents an important step toward super-resolution microscopy of living cells.

  3. A Fluid Membrane-Based Soluble Ligand Display System for Live CellAssays

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Nam, Jwa-Min; Nair, Pradeep N.; Neve, Richard M.; Gray, Joe W.; Groves, Jay T.

    2005-10-14

    Cell communication modulates numerous biological processes including proliferation, apoptosis, motility, invasion and differentiation. Correspondingly, there has been significant interest in the development of surface display strategies for the presentation of signaling molecules to living cells. This effort has primarily focused on naturally surface-bound ligands, such as extracellular matrix components and cell membranes. Soluble ligands (e.g. growth factors and cytokines) play an important role in intercellular communications, and their display in a surface-bound format would be of great utility in the design of array-based live cell assays. Recently, several cell microarray systems that display cDNA, RNAi, or small molecules in a surface array format were proven to be useful in accelerating high-throughput functional genetic studies and screening therapeutic agents. These surface display methods provide a flexible platform for the systematic, combinatorial investigation of genes and small molecules affecting cellular processes and phenotypes of interest. In an analogous sense, it would be an important advance if one could display soluble signaling ligands in a surface assay format that allows for systematic, patterned presentation of soluble ligands to live cells. Such a technique would make it possible to examine cellular phenotypes of interest in a parallel format with soluble signaling ligands as one of the display parameters. Herein we report a ligand-modified fluid supported lipid bilayer (SLB) assay system that can be used to functionally display soluble ligands to cells in situ (Figure 1A). By displaying soluble ligands on a SLB surface, both solution behavior (the ability to become locally enriched by reaction-diffusion processes) and solid behavior (the ability to control the spatial location of the ligands in an open system) could be combined. The method reported herein benefits from the naturally fluid state of the supported membrane, which allows

  4. Tracking chemical changes in a live cell: Biomedical applications of SR-FTIR spectromicroscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Holman, Hoi-Ying N.; Martin, Michael C.; McKinney, Wayne R.

    2002-01-01

    Synchrotron radiation-based Fourier transform infrared (SR-FTIR) spectromicroscopy is a newly emerging bioanalytical and imaging tool. This unique technique provides mid-infrared (IR) spectra, hence chemical information, with high signal-to-noise at spatial resolutions as fine as 3 to 10 microns. Thus it enables researchers to locate, identify, and track specific chemical events within an individual living mammalian cell. Mid-IR photons are too low in energy (0.05 - 0.5 eV) to either break bonds or to cause ionization. In this review, we show that the synchrotron IR beam has no detectable effects on the short- and long-term viability, reproductive integrity, cell-cycle progression, and mitochondrial metabolism in living human cells, and produces only minimal sample heating (< 0.5 degrees C). We will then present several examples demonstrating the application potentials of SR-FTIR spectromicroscopy in biomedical research. These will include monitoring living cells progressing through the cell cycle, including death, and cells reacting to dilute concentrations of toxins

  5. Tracking chemical changes in a live cell: Biomedical applications of SR-FTIR spectromicroscopy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Holman, Hoi-Ying N.; Martin, Michael C.; McKinney, Wayne R.

    2002-07-25

    Synchrotron radiation-based Fourier transform infrared (SR-FTIR) spectromicroscopy is a newly emerging bioanalytical and imaging tool. This unique technique provides mid-infrared (IR) spectra, hence chemical information, with high signal-to-noise at spatial resolutions as fine as 3 to 10 microns. Thus it enables researchers to locate, identify, and track specific chemical events within an individual living mammalian cell. Mid-IR photons are too low in energy (0.05 - 0.5 eV) to either break bonds or to cause ionization. In this review, we show that the synchrotron IR beam has no detectable effects on the short- and long-term viability, reproductive integrity, cell-cycle progression, and mitochondrial metabolism in living human cells, and produces only minimal sample heating (< 0.5 degrees C). We will then present several examples demonstrating the application potentials of SR-FTIR spectromicroscopy in biomedical research. These will include monitoring living cells progressing through the cell cycle, including death, and cells reacting to dilute concentrations of toxins.

  6. Live attenuated measles virus vaccine therapy for locally established malignant glioblastoma tumor cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Al-Shammari AM

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Ahmed M Al-Shammari,1 Farah E Ismaeel,2 Shahlaa M Salih,2 Nahi Y Yaseen11Experimental Therapy Department, Iraqi Center for Cancer and Medical Genetic Researches, Mustansiriya University, 2Departments of Biotechnology, College of Science, Al-Nahrain University, Baghdad, IraqAbstract: Glioblastoma multiforme is the most aggressive malignant primary brain tumor in humans, with poor prognosis. A new glioblastoma cell line (ANGM5 was established from a cerebral glioblastoma multiforme in a 72-year-old Iraqi man who underwent surgery for an intracranial tumor. This study was carried out to evaluate the antitumor effect of live attenuated measles virus (MV Schwarz vaccine strain on glioblastoma multiforme tumor cell lines in vitro. Live attenuated MV Schwarz strain was propagated on Vero, human rhabdomyosarcoma, and human glioblastoma-multiform (ANGM5 cell lines. The infected confluent monolayer appeared to be covered with syncytia with granulation and vacuolation, as well as cell rounding, shrinkage, and large empty space with cell debris as a result of cell lysis and death. Cell lines infected with virus have the ability for hemadsorption to human red blood cells after 72 hours of infection, whereas no hemadsorption of uninfected cells is seen. Detection of MV hemagglutinin protein by monoclonal antibodies in infected cells of all cell lines by immunocytochemistry assay gave positive results (brown color in the cytoplasm of infected cells. Cell viability was measured after 72 hours of infection by 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. Results showed a significant cytotoxic effect for MV (P≤0.05 on growth of ANGM5 and rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines after 72 hours of infection. Induction of apoptosis by MV was assessed by measuring mitochondrial membrane potentials in tumor cells after 48, 72, and 120 hours of infection. Apoptotic cells were counted, and the mean percentage of dead cells was significantly higher after 48, 72

  7. Arginine-rich intracellular delivery peptides noncovalently transport protein into living cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Y.-H.; Chen, C.-P.; Chan, M.-H.; Chang, M.; Hou, Y.-W.; Chen, H.-H.; Hsu, H.-R.; Liu, Kevin; Lee, H.-J.

    2006-01-01

    Plasma membranes of plant or animal cells are generally impermeable to peptides or proteins. Many basic peptides have previously been investigated and covalently cross-linked with cargoes for cellular internalization. In the current study, we demonstrate that arginine-rich intracellular delivery (AID) peptides are able to deliver fluorescent proteins or β-galactosidase enzyme into animal and plant cells, as well as animal tissue. Cellular internalization and transdermal delivery of protein could be mediated by effective and nontoxic AID peptides in a neither fusion protein nor conjugation fashion. Therefore, noncovalent AID peptides may provide a useful strategy to have active proteins function in living cells and tissues in vivo

  8. Effects of high-gradient magnetic fields on living cell machinery

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Zablotskyy, Vitaliy A.; Lunov, Oleg; Kubinová, Šárka; Polyakova, Tetyana; Syková, E.; Dejneka, Alexandr

    2016-01-01

    Roč. 49, č. 49 (2016), s. 1-23, č. článku 493003. ISSN 0022-3727 R&D Projects: GA MŠk LO1409 Grant - others:FUNBIO(XE) CZ.2.16/3.1.00/21568 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : living cell * magnetic gradient force * cell mechanics * stem cell * magnetic field Subject RIV: BO - Biophysics Impact factor: 2.588, year: 2016

  9. The lived experiences of adolescents with sickle cell disease in Kingston, Jamaica

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea Brown Forrester

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Aim: To explore the lived experiences of adolescents with sickle cell disease, in Kingston, Jamaica. Method: A descriptive qualitative design was used for this research. In-depth interviews were conducted with six adolescents with sickle cell disease at a Sickle Cell Unit operated by the University of the West Indies. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and thematically analyzed. Results: The majority of the adolescents demonstrated a positive self-concept. They reported strong family, school, and peer support which made them feel accepted. All were actively engaged in social activities such as parties, but had challenges participating in sporting activities. Various coping strategies were utilized to address challenges of the disease including praying, watching television, and surfing the Internet. Conclusion: Sickle cell disease can be very challenging for the adolescent, but with positive self-concept and increased social support, especially from family and peers, these adolescents were able to effectively cope with their condition and live productive lives.

  10. The lived experiences of adolescents with sickle cell disease in Kingston, Jamaica.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Forrester, Andrea Brown; Barton-Gooden, Antoinette; Pitter, Cynthia; Lindo, Jascinth L M

    2015-01-01

    To explore the lived experiences of adolescents with sickle cell disease, in Kingston, Jamaica. A descriptive qualitative design was used for this research. In-depth interviews were conducted with six adolescents with sickle cell disease at a Sickle Cell Unit operated by the University of the West Indies. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and thematically analyzed. The majority of the adolescents demonstrated a positive self-concept. They reported strong family, school, and peer support which made them feel accepted. All were actively engaged in social activities such as parties, but had challenges participating in sporting activities. Various coping strategies were utilized to address challenges of the disease including praying, watching television, and surfing the Internet. Sickle cell disease can be very challenging for the adolescent, but with positive self-concept and increased social support, especially from family and peers, these adolescents were able to effectively cope with their condition and live productive lives.

  11. Live-Cell MicroRNA Imaging through MnO2 Nanosheet-Mediated DD-A Hybridization Chain Reaction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ou, Min; Huang, Jin; Yang, Xiaohai; He, Xiaoxiao; Quan, Ke; Yang, Yanjing; Xie, Nuli; Li, Jing; Wang, Kemin

    2018-01-18

    Innovative techniques to visualize native microRNAs (miRNAs) in live cells can dramatically impact current research on the roles of miRNA in biology and medicine. Here, we report a novel approach for live-cell miRNA imaging using a biodegradable MnO 2 nanosheet-mediated DD-A FRET hybridization chain reaction (HCR). The MnO 2 nanosheets can adsorb DNA hairpin probes and deliver them into live cells. After entering cells, the MnO 2 nanosheets are degraded by cellular GSH. Then, the target miR-21 triggers cascaded assembly of the liberated hairpin probes into long dsDNA polymers, which brings each two FAMs (donor) and one TAMRA (acceptor) into close proximity to generate significantly enhanced DD-A FRET signals, which was discovered and proven by our previous report. We think the developed approach can serve as an excellent intracellular miRNAs detection tool, which promises the potential for biological and disease studies. © 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  12. A Highly Specific Gold Nanoprobe for Live-Cell Single-Molecule Imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leduc, Cécile; Si, Satyabrata; Gautier, Jérémie; Soto-Ribeiro, Martinho; Wehrle-Haller, Bernhard; Gautreau, Alexis; Giannone, Grégory; Cognet, Laurent; Lounis, Brahim

    2013-04-01

    Single molecule tracking in live cells is the ultimate tool to study subcellular protein dynamics, but it is often limited by the probe size and photostability. Due to these issues, long-term tracking of proteins in confined and crowded environments, such as intracellular spaces, remains challenging. We have developed a novel optical probe consisting of 5-nm gold nanoparticles functionalized with a small fragment of camelid antibodies that recognize widely used GFPs with a very high affinity, which we call GFP-nanobodies. These small gold nanoparticles can be detected and tracked using photothermal imaging for arbitrarily long periods of time. Surface and intracellular GFP-proteins were effectively labeled even in very crowded environments such as adhesion sites and cytoskeletal structures both in vitro and in live cell cultures. These nanobody-coated gold nanoparticles are probes with unparalleled capabilities; small size, perfect photostability, high specificity, and versatility afforded by combination with the vast existing library of GFP-tagged proteins.

  13. Delivery of Optical Contrast Agents using Triton-X100, Part 1: Reversible permeabilization of live cells for intracellular labeling

    OpenAIRE

    van de Ven, Anne L; Adler-Storthz, Karen; Richards-Kortum, Rebecca

    2009-01-01

    Effective delivery of optical contrast agents into live cells remains a significant challenge. We sought to determine whether Triton-X100, a detergent commonly used for membrane isolation and protein purification, could be used to effectively and reversibly permeabilize live cells for delivery of targeted optical contrast agents. Although Triton-X100 is widely recognized as a good cell permeabilization agent, no systematic study has evaluated the efficiency, reproducibility, and reversibility...

  14. The use of fluorescent intrabodies to detect endogenous gankyrin in living cancer cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rinaldi, Anne-Sophie; Freund, Guillaume; Desplancq, Dominique; Sibler, Annie-Paule; Baltzinger, Mireille; Rochel, Natacha; Mély, Yves; Didier, Pascal; Weiss, Etienne

    2013-01-01

    Expression of antibody fragments in mammalian cells (intrabodies) is used to probe the target protein or interfere with its biological function. We previously described the in vitro characterisation of a single-chain Fv (scFv) antibody fragment (F5) isolated from an intrabody library that binds to the oncoprotein gankyrin (GK) in solution. Here, we have isolated several other scFvs that interact with GK in the presence of F5 and tested whether they allow, when fused to fluorescent proteins, to detect by FRET endogenous GK in living cells. The binding of pairs of scFvs to GK was analysed by gel filtration and the ability of each scFv to mediate nuclear import/export of GK was determined. Binding between scFv-EGFP and RFP-labelled GK in living cells was detected by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). After co-transfection of two scFvs fused to EGFP and RFP, respectively, which form a tri-molecular complex with GK in vitro, FRET signal was measured. This system allowed us to observe that GK is monomeric and distributed throughout the cytoplasm and nucleus of several cancer cell lines. Our results show that pairs of fluorescently labelled intrabodies can be monitored by FLIM–FRET microscopy and that this technique allows the detection of lowly expressed endogenous proteins in single living cells. Highlights: ► Endogenous GK in living cells was targeted with pairs of fluorescently-tagged scFvs. ► Tri-molecular complexes containing two scFvs and one molecule GK were formed. ► GK was detected using fluorescence lifetime-based FRET imaging. ► GK is monomeric and homogeneously distributed in several cancer cell lines. ► This technique may have many applications in live-cell imaging of endogenous proteins

  15. The use of fluorescent intrabodies to detect endogenous gankyrin in living cancer cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rinaldi, Anne-Sophie; Freund, Guillaume; Desplancq, Dominique; Sibler, Annie-Paule; Baltzinger, Mireille [Ecole Supérieure de Biotechnologie de Strasbourg, UMR 7242, CNRS/Université de Strasbourg, boulevard Sébastien Brant, 67412 Illkirch (France); Rochel, Natacha [Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, UMR 7104, CNRS/INSERM/Université de Strasbourg, rue Laurent Fries, 67404 Illkirch (France); Mély, Yves; Didier, Pascal [Faculté de Pharmacie, UMR 7213, CNRS/Université de Strasbourg, route du Rhin, 67401 Illkirch (France); Weiss, Etienne, E-mail: eweiss@unistra.fr [Ecole Supérieure de Biotechnologie de Strasbourg, UMR 7242, CNRS/Université de Strasbourg, boulevard Sébastien Brant, 67412 Illkirch (France)

    2013-04-01

    Expression of antibody fragments in mammalian cells (intrabodies) is used to probe the target protein or interfere with its biological function. We previously described the in vitro characterisation of a single-chain Fv (scFv) antibody fragment (F5) isolated from an intrabody library that binds to the oncoprotein gankyrin (GK) in solution. Here, we have isolated several other scFvs that interact with GK in the presence of F5 and tested whether they allow, when fused to fluorescent proteins, to detect by FRET endogenous GK in living cells. The binding of pairs of scFvs to GK was analysed by gel filtration and the ability of each scFv to mediate nuclear import/export of GK was determined. Binding between scFv-EGFP and RFP-labelled GK in living cells was detected by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). After co-transfection of two scFvs fused to EGFP and RFP, respectively, which form a tri-molecular complex with GK in vitro, FRET signal was measured. This system allowed us to observe that GK is monomeric and distributed throughout the cytoplasm and nucleus of several cancer cell lines. Our results show that pairs of fluorescently labelled intrabodies can be monitored by FLIM–FRET microscopy and that this technique allows the detection of lowly expressed endogenous proteins in single living cells. Highlights: ► Endogenous GK in living cells was targeted with pairs of fluorescently-tagged scFvs. ► Tri-molecular complexes containing two scFvs and one molecule GK were formed. ► GK was detected using fluorescence lifetime-based FRET imaging. ► GK is monomeric and homogeneously distributed in several cancer cell lines. ► This technique may have many applications in live-cell imaging of endogenous proteins.

  16. Infrared microspectroscopy of live cells in microfluidic devices (MD-IRMS): toward a powerful label-free cell-based assay.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaccari, L; Birarda, G; Businaro, L; Pacor, S; Grenci, G

    2012-06-05

    Until nowadays most infrared microspectroscopy (IRMS) experiments on biological specimens (i.e., tissues or cells) have been routinely carried out on fixed or dried samples in order to circumvent water absorption problems. In this paper, we demonstrate the possibility to widen the range of in-vitro IRMS experiments to vibrational analysis of live cellular samples, thanks to the development of novel biocompatible IR-visible transparent microfluidic devices (MD). In order to highlight the biological relevance of IRMS in MD (MD-IRMS), we performed a systematic exploration of the biochemical alterations induced by different fixation protocols, ethanol 70% and formaldehyde solution 4%, as well as air-drying on U937 leukemic monocytes by comparing their IR vibrational features with the live U937 counterpart. Both fixation and air-drying procedures affected lipid composition and order as well as protein structure at a different extent while they both induced structural alterations in nucleic acids. Therefore, only IRMS of live cells can provide reliable information on both DNA and RNA structure and on their cellular dynamic. In summary, we show that MD-IRMS of live cells is feasible, reliable, and biologically relevant to be recognized as a label-free cell-based assay.

  17. Label-free evanescent microscopy for membrane nano-tomography in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bon, Pierre; Barroca, Thomas; Lévèque-Fort, Sandrine; Fort, Emmanuel

    2014-11-01

    We show that through-the-objective evanescent microscopy (epi-EM) is a powerful technique to image membranes in living cells. Readily implementable on a standard inverted microscope, this technique enables full-field and real-time tracking of membrane processes without labeling and thus signal fading. In addition, we demonstrate that the membrane/interface distance can be retrieved with 10 nm precision using a multilayer Fresnel model. We apply this nano-axial tomography of living cell membranes to retrieve quantitative information on membrane invagination dynamics. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

  18. Nuclear dynamics of influenza A virus ribonucleoproteins revealed by live-cell imaging studies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Loucaides, Eva M.; Kirchbach, Johann C. von; Foeglein, Agnes; Sharps, Jane; Fodor, Ervin; Digard, Paul

    2009-01-01

    The negative sense RNA genome of influenza A virus is transcribed and replicated in the nuclei of infected cells by the viral RNA polymerase. Only four viral polypeptides are required but multiple cellular components are potentially involved. We used fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) to characterise the dynamics of GFP-tagged viral ribonucleoprotein (RNP) components in living cells. The nucleoprotein (NP) displayed very slow mobility that significantly increased on formation of transcriptionally active RNPs. Conversely, single or dimeric polymerase subunits showed fast nuclear dynamics that decreased upon formation of heterotrimers, suggesting increased interaction of the full polymerase complex with a relatively immobile cellular component(s). Treatment with inhibitors of cellular transcription indicated that in part, this reflected an interaction with cellular RNA polymerase II. Analysis of mutated influenza virus polymerase complexes further suggested that this was through an interaction between PB2 and RNA Pol II separate from PB2 cap-binding activity.

  19. Integrated dual-tomography for refractive index analysis of free-floating single living cell with isotropic superresolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    B, Vinoth; Lai, Xin-Ji; Lin, Yu-Chih; Tu, Han-Yen; Cheng, Chau-Jern

    2018-04-13

    Digital holographic microtomography is a promising technique for three-dimensional (3D) measurement of the refractive index (RI) profiles of biological specimens. Measurement of the RI distribution of a free-floating single living cell with an isotropic superresolution had not previously been accomplished. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study focusing on the development of an integrated dual-tomographic (IDT) imaging system for RI measurement of an unlabelled free-floating single living cell with an isotropic superresolution by combining the spatial frequencies of full-angle specimen rotation with those of beam rotation. A novel 'UFO' (unidentified flying object) like shaped coherent transfer function is obtained. The IDT imaging system does not require any complex image-processing algorithm for 3D reconstruction. The working principle was successfully demonstrated and a 3D RI profile of a single living cell, Candida rugosa, was obtained with an isotropic superresolution. This technology is expected to set a benchmark for free-floating single live sample measurements without labeling or any special sample preparations for the experiments.

  20. Living labeling techniques of mesenchymal stem cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dong Qingyu; Chen Li

    2007-01-01

    Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are well known for their self-renew and multi- differentiation potentiality. With the transplantation of the MSCs which can promote the regeneration and repair of the injured tissue, a new route for the treatment of dieases is hopeful to be effective. To trace the distribution, migration, proliferation and differentiation of the implanted MSCs, there need effective labeling techniques, especially living labeling techniques. (authors)

  1. Digital Holographic Microscopy: Quantitative Phase Imaging and Applications in Live Cell Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kemper, Björn; Langehanenberg, Patrik; Kosmeier, Sebastian; Schlichthaber, Frank; Remmersmann, Christian; von Bally, Gert; Rommel, Christina; Dierker, Christian; Schnekenburger, Jürgen

    The analysis of complex processes in living cells creates a high demand for fast and label-free methods for online monitoring. Widely used fluorescence methods require specific labeling and are often restricted to chemically fixated samples. Thus, methods that offer label-free and minimally invasive detection of live cell processes and cell state alterations are of particular interest. In combination with light microscopy, digital holography provides label-free, multi-focus quantitative phase imaging of living cells. In overview, several methods for digital holographic microscopy (DHM) are presented. First, different experimental setups for the recording of digital holograms and the modular integration of DHM into common microscopes are described. Then the numerical processing of digitally captured holograms is explained. This includes the description of spatial and temporal phase shifting techniques, spatial filtering based reconstruction, holographic autofocusing, and the evaluation of self-interference holograms. Furthermore, the usage of partial coherent light and multi-wavelength approaches is discussed. Finally, potentials of digital holographic microscopy for quantitative cell imaging are illustrated by results from selected applications. It is shown that DHM can be used for automated tracking of migrating cells and cell thickness monitoring as well as for refractive index determination of cells and particles. Moreover, the use of DHM for label-free analysis in fluidics and micro-injection monitoring is demonstrated. The results show that DHM is a highly relevant method that allows novel insights in dynamic cell biology, with applications in cancer research and for drugs and toxicity testing.

  2. Molecular beacon nanosensors for live cell detection and tracking differentiation and reprogramming

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ilieva, Mirolyuba

    2013-01-01

    open to closed state within living cells. Using MBs targeting pluripotent stem cell markers we demonstrated reverse into a more immature state of LUHMES induced by neurosphere-like growth conditions. Moreover, we have been able to trace localisation of this particular population during differentiation...... in separation of fluorophore from quencher and thereby emission of a fluorescent signal that can be detected. In this project the usability and applicability of MBs for live cell detection and tracing of gene expression was demonstrated. MBs library targeting gene markers for pluripotent stem cells as well...... and thus demonstrate the usability of MBs for monitoring cell behaviour within 3D clusters. Finally, MBs detection of expression of human pluripotent markers after reprograming of adult somatic cells with plasmid codding for mouse transcription factors was demonstrated. In conclusion, the method of using...

  3. Measurement of in-plane elasticity of live cell layers using a pressure sensor embedded microfluidic device

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Chien-Han; Wang, Chien-Kai; Chen, Yu-An; Peng, Chien-Chung; Liao, Wei-Hao; Tung, Yi-Chung

    2016-11-01

    In various physiological activities, cells experience stresses along their in-plane direction when facing substrate deformation. Capability of continuous monitoring elasticity of live cell layers during a period is highly desired to investigate cell property variation during various transformations under normal or disease states. This paper reports time-lapsed measurement of live cell layer in-plane elasticity using a pressure sensor embedded microfluidic device. The sensor converts pressure-induced deformation of a flexible membrane to electrical signals. When cells are cultured on top of the membrane, flexural rigidity of the composite membrane increases and further changes the output electrical signals. In the experiments, human embryonic lung fibroblast (MRC-5) cells are cultured and analyzed to estimate the in-plane elasticity. In addition, the cells are treated with a growth factor to simulate lung fibrosis to study the effects of cell transformation on the elasticity variation. For comparison, elasticity measurement on the cells by atomic force microscopy (AFM) is also performed. The experimental results confirm highly anisotropic configuration and material properties of cells. Furthermore, the in-plane elasticity can be monitored during the cell transformation after the growth factor stimulation. Consequently, the developed microfluidic device provides a powerful tool to study physical properties of cells for fundamental biophysics and biomedical researches.

  4. [Non-invasive analysis of proteins in living cells using NMR spectroscopy].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tochio, Hidehito; Murayama, Shuhei; Inomata, Kohsuke; Morimoto, Daichi; Ohno, Ayako; Shirakawa, Masahiro

    2015-01-01

    NMR spectroscopy enables structural analyses of proteins and has been widely used in the structural biology field in recent decades. NMR spectroscopy can be applied to proteins inside living cells, allowing characterization of their structures and dynamics in intracellular environments. The simplest "in-cell NMR" approach employs bacterial cells; in this approach, live Escherichia coli cells overexpressing a specific protein are subjected to NMR. The cells are grown in an NMR active isotope-enriched medium to ensure that the overexpressed proteins are labeled with the stable isotopes. Thus the obtained NMR spectra, which are derived from labeled proteins, contain atomic-level information about the structure and dynamics of the proteins. Recent progress enables us to work with higher eukaryotic cells such as HeLa and HEK293 cells, for which a number of techniques have been developed to achieve isotope labeling of the specific target protein. In this review, we describe successful use of electroporation for in-cell NMR. In addition, (19)F-NMR to characterize protein-ligand interactions in cells is presented. Because (19)F nuclei rarely exist in natural cells, when (19)F-labeled proteins are delivered into cells and (19)F-NMR signals are observed, one can safely ascertain that these signals originate from the delivered proteins and not other molecules.

  5. Detecting infrared luminescence and non-chemical signaling of living cells: single cell mid-IR spectroscopy in cryogenic environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pereverzev, Sergey

    2017-02-01

    Many life-relevant interaction energies are in IR range, and it is reasonable to believe that some biochemical reactions inside cells can results in emission of IR photons. Cells can use this emission for non-chemical and non-electrical signaling. Detecting weak infrared radiation from live cells is complicated because of strong thermal radiation background and absorption of radiation by tissues. A microfluidic device with live cells inside a vacuum cryogenic environment should suppress this background, and thereby permit observation of live cell auto-luminescence or signaling in the IR regime. One can make IR-transparent windows not emitting in this range, so only the cell and a small amount of liquid around it will emit infrared radiation. Currently mid-IR spectroscopy of single cells requires the use of a synchrotron source to measure absorption or reflection spectra. Decreasing of thermal radiation background will allow absorption and reflection spectroscopy of cells without using synchrotron light. Moreover, cell auto-luminescence can be directly measured. The complete absence of thermal background radiation for cryogenically cooled samples allows the use IR photon-sensitive detectors and obtaining single molecule sensitivity in IR photo-luminescence measurements. Due to low photon energies, photo-luminescence measurements will be non-distractive for pressures samples. The technique described here is based upon US patent 9366574.

  6. Atomic force microscopy as a tool for the investigation of living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morkvėnaitė-Vilkončienė, Inga; Ramanavičienė, Almira; Ramanavičius, Arūnas

    2013-01-01

    Atomic force microscopy is a valuable and useful tool for the imaging and investigation of living cells in their natural environment at high resolution. Procedures applied to living cell preparation before measurements should be adapted individually for different kinds of cells and for the desired measurement technique. Different ways of cell immobilization, such as chemical fixation on the surface, entrapment in the pores of a membrane, or growing them directly on glass cover slips or on plastic substrates, result in the distortion or appearance of artifacts in atomic force microscopy images. Cell fixation allows the multiple use of samples and storage for a prolonged period; it also increases the resolution of imaging. Different atomic force microscopy modes are used for the imaging and analysis of living cells. The contact mode is the best for cell imaging because of high resolution, but it is usually based on the following: (i) image formation at low interaction force, (ii) low scanning speed, and (iii) usage of "soft," low resolution cantilevers. The tapping mode allows a cell to behave like a very solid material, and destructive shear forces are minimized, but imaging in liquid is difficult. The force spectroscopy mode is used for measuring the mechanical properties of cells; however, obtained results strongly depend on the cell fixation method. In this paper, the application of 3 atomic force microscopy modes including (i) contact, (ii) tapping, and (iii) force spectroscopy for the investigation of cells is described. The possibilities of cell preparation for the measurements, imaging, and determination of mechanical properties of cells are provided. The applicability of atomic force microscopy to diagnostics and other biomedical purposes is discussed.

  7. Under the Microscope: Single-Domain Antibodies for Live-Cell Imaging and Super-Resolution Microscopy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bjoern Traenkle

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Single-domain antibodies (sdAbs have substantially expanded the possibilities of advanced cellular imaging such as live-cell or super-resolution microscopy to visualize cellular antigens and their dynamics. In addition to their unique properties including small size, high stability, and solubility in many environments, sdAbs can be efficiently functionalized according to the needs of the respective imaging approach. Genetically encoded intrabodies fused to fluorescent proteins (chromobodies have become versatile tools to study dynamics of endogenous proteins in living cells. Additionally, sdAbs conjugated to organic dyes were shown to label cellular structures with high density and minimal fluorophore displacement making them highly attractive probes for super-resolution microscopy. Here, we review recent advances of the chromobody technology to visualize localization and dynamics of cellular targets and the application of chromobody-based cell models for compound screening. Acknowledging the emerging importance of super-resolution microscopy in cell biology, we further discuss advantages and challenges of sdAbs for this technology.

  8. Under the Microscope: Single-Domain Antibodies for Live-Cell Imaging and Super-Resolution Microscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Traenkle, Bjoern; Rothbauer, Ulrich

    2017-01-01

    Single-domain antibodies (sdAbs) have substantially expanded the possibilities of advanced cellular imaging such as live-cell or super-resolution microscopy to visualize cellular antigens and their dynamics. In addition to their unique properties including small size, high stability, and solubility in many environments, sdAbs can be efficiently functionalized according to the needs of the respective imaging approach. Genetically encoded intrabodies fused to fluorescent proteins (chromobodies) have become versatile tools to study dynamics of endogenous proteins in living cells. Additionally, sdAbs conjugated to organic dyes were shown to label cellular structures with high density and minimal fluorophore displacement making them highly attractive probes for super-resolution microscopy. Here, we review recent advances of the chromobody technology to visualize localization and dynamics of cellular targets and the application of chromobody-based cell models for compound screening. Acknowledging the emerging importance of super-resolution microscopy in cell biology, we further discuss advantages and challenges of sdAbs for this technology.

  9. Effects of high-gradient magnetic fields on living cell machinery

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zablotskii, V; Lunov, O; Kubinova, S; Polyakova, T; Dejneka, A; Sykova, E

    2016-01-01

    A general interest in biomagnetic effects is related to fundamental studies of the influence of magnetic fields on living objects on the cellular and whole organism levels. Emerging technologies offer new directions for the use of high-gradient magnetic fields to control cell machinery and to understand the intracellular biological processes of the emerging field of nanomedicine. In this review we aim at highlighting recent advances made in identifying fundamental mechanisms by which magnetic gradient forces act on cell fate specification and cell differentiation. The review also provides an analysis of the currently available magnetic systems capable of generating magnetic fields with spatial gradients of up to 10 MT m −1 , with the focus on their suitability for use in cell therapy. Relationships between experimental factors and underlying biophysical mechanisms and assumptions that would ultimately lead to a deeper understanding of cell machinery and the development of more predictive models for the evaluation of the effects of magnetic fields on cells, tissue and organisms are comprehensively discussed. (topical review)

  10. Living biointerfaces based on non-pathogenic bacteria support stem cell differentiation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hay, Jake J.; Rodrigo-Navarro, Aleixandre; Hassi, Karoliina; Moulisova, Vladimira; Dalby, Matthew J.; Salmeron-Sanchez, Manuel

    2016-02-01

    Lactococcus lactis, a non-pathogenic bacteria, has been genetically engineered to express the III7-10 fragment of human fibronectin as a membrane protein. The engineered L. lactis is able to develop biofilms on different surfaces (such as glass and synthetic polymers) and serves as a long-term substrate for mammalian cell culture, specifically human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC). This system constitutes a living interface between biomaterials and stem cells. The engineered biofilms remain stable and viable for up to 28 days while the expressed fibronectin fragment induces hMSC adhesion. We have optimised conditions to allow long-term mammalian cell culture, and found that the biofilm is functionally equivalent to a fibronectin-coated surface in terms of osteoblastic differentiation using bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP-2) added to the medium. This living bacteria interface holds promise as a dynamic substrate for stem cell differentiation that can be further engineered to express other biochemical cues to control hMSC differentiation.

  11. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy for rapid screening and live-cell monitoring: application to nanotoxicology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sundaram, S K; Sacksteder, Colette A; Weber, Thomas J; Riley, Brian J; Addleman, R Shane; Harrer, Bruce J; Peterman, John W

    2013-01-01

    A significant challenge to realize the full potential of nanotechnology for therapeutic and diagnostic applications is to understand and evaluate how live cells interact with an external stimulus, such as a nanosized particle, and the toxicity and broad risk associated with these stimuli. It is difficult to capture the complexity and dynamics of these interactions by following omics-based approaches exclusively, which can be expensive and time-consuming. Attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is well suited to provide noninvasive live-cell monitoring of cellular responses to potentially toxic nanosized particles or other stimuli. This alternative approach provides the ability to carry out rapid toxicity screenings and nondisruptive monitoring of live-cell cultures. We review the technical basis of the approach, the instrument configuration and interface with the biological media, the various effects that impact the data, subsequent data analysis and toxicity, and present some preliminary results on live-cell monitoring.

  12. [Methods of substances and organelles introduction in living cell for cell engineering technologies].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nikitin, V A

    2007-01-01

    We have presented the classification of more than 40 methods of genetic material, substances and organelles introduction into a living cell. Each of them has its characteristic advantages, disadvantages and limitations with respect to cell viability, transfer efficiency, general applicability, and technical requirements. It this article we have enlarged on the description of our developments of several new and improved approaches, methods and devices of the direct microinjection into a single cell and cell microsurgery with the help of glass micropipettes. The problem of low efficiency of mammalian cloning is discussed with emphasis on the necessity of expertizing of each step of single cell reconstruction to begin with microsurgical manipulations and necessity of the development of such methods of single cell resonstruction that could minimize the possible damage of the cell.

  13. Thermodynamics of protein destabilization in live cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Danielsson, Jens; Mu, Xin; Lang, Lisa; Wang, Huabing; Binolfi, Andres; Theillet, François-Xavier; Bekei, Beata; Logan, Derek T; Selenko, Philipp; Wennerström, Håkan; Oliveberg, Mikael

    2015-10-06

    Although protein folding and stability have been well explored under simplified conditions in vitro, it is yet unclear how these basic self-organization events are modulated by the crowded interior of live cells. To find out, we use here in-cell NMR to follow at atomic resolution the thermal unfolding of a β-barrel protein inside mammalian and bacterial cells. Challenging the view from in vitro crowding effects, we find that the cells destabilize the protein at 37 °C but with a conspicuous twist: While the melting temperature goes down the cold unfolding moves into the physiological regime, coupled to an augmented heat-capacity change. The effect seems induced by transient, sequence-specific, interactions with the cellular components, acting preferentially on the unfolded ensemble. This points to a model where the in vivo influence on protein behavior is case specific, determined by the individual protein's interplay with the functionally optimized "interaction landscape" of the cellular interior.

  14. Raman microscopy of individual living human embryonic stem cells

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Novikov, Sergey M.; Beermann, Jonas; Bozhevolnyi, Sergey I.

    2010-01-01

    We demonstrate the possibility of mapping the distribution of different biomolecules in living human embryonic stem cells grown on glass substrates, without the need for fluorescent markers. In our work we improve the quality of measurements by finding a buffer that gives low fluorescence, growing...... cells on glass substrates (whose Raman signals are relatively weak compared to that of the cells) and having the backside covered with gold to improve the image contrast under direct white light illumination. The experimental setup used for Raman microscopy is the commercially available confocal...

  15. Automatic analysis of dividing cells in live cell movies to detect mitotic delays and correlate phenotypes in time.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harder, Nathalie; Mora-Bermúdez, Felipe; Godinez, William J; Wünsche, Annelie; Eils, Roland; Ellenberg, Jan; Rohr, Karl

    2009-11-01

    Live-cell imaging allows detailed dynamic cellular phenotyping for cell biology and, in combination with small molecule or drug libraries, for high-content screening. Fully automated analysis of live cell movies has been hampered by the lack of computational approaches that allow tracking and recognition of individual cell fates over time in a precise manner. Here, we present a fully automated approach to analyze time-lapse movies of dividing cells. Our method dynamically categorizes cells into seven phases of the cell cycle and five aberrant morphological phenotypes over time. It reliably tracks cells and their progeny and can thus measure the length of mitotic phases and detect cause and effect if mitosis goes awry. We applied our computational scheme to annotate mitotic phenotypes induced by RNAi gene knockdown of CKAP5 (also known as ch-TOG) or by treatment with the drug nocodazole. Our approach can be readily applied to comparable assays aiming at uncovering the dynamic cause of cell division phenotypes.

  16. Compressive Force Spectroscopy: From Living Cells to Single Proteins.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Jiabin; Liu, Meijun; Shen, Yi; Sun, Jielin; Shao, Zhifeng; Czajkowsky, Daniel Mark

    2018-03-23

    One of the most successful applications of atomic force microscopy (AFM) in biology involves monitoring the effect of force on single biological molecules, often referred to as force spectroscopy. Such studies generally entail the application of pulling forces of different magnitudes and velocities upon individual molecules to resolve individualistic unfolding/separation pathways and the quantification of the force-dependent rate constants. However, a less recognized variation of this method, the application of compressive force, actually pre-dates many of these "tensile" force spectroscopic studies. Further, beyond being limited to the study of single molecules, these compressive force spectroscopic investigations have spanned samples as large as living cells to smaller, multi-molecular complexes such as viruses down to single protein molecules. Correspondingly, these studies have enabled the detailed characterization of individual cell states, subtle differences between seemingly identical viral structures, as well as the quantification of rate constants of functionally important, structural transitions in single proteins. Here, we briefly review some of the recent achievements that have been obtained with compressive force spectroscopy using AFM and highlight exciting areas of its future development.

  17. Relationships between Cargo, Cell Penetrating Peptides and Cell Type for Uptake of Non-Covalent Complexes into Live Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Andrea-Anneliese Keller

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available Modulating signaling pathways for research and therapy requires either suppression or expression of selected genes or internalization of proteins such as enzymes, antibodies, nucleotide binding proteins or substrates including nucleoside phosphates and enzyme inhibitors. Peptides, proteins and nucleotides are transported by fusing or conjugating them to cell penetrating peptides or by formation of non-covalent complexes. The latter is often preferred because of easy handling, uptake efficiency and auto-release of cargo into the live cell. In our studies complexes are formed with labeled or readily detectable cargoes for qualitative and quantitative estimation of their internalization. Properties and behavior of adhesion and suspension vertebrate cells as well as the protozoa Leishmania tarentolae are investigated with respect to proteolytic activity, uptake efficiency, intracellular localization and cytotoxicity. Our results show that peptide stability to membrane-bound, secreted or intracellular proteases varies between different CPPs and that the suitability of individual CPPs for a particular cargo in complex formation by non-covalent interactions requires detailed studies. Cells vary in their sensitivity to increasing concentrations of CPPs. Thus, most cells can be efficiently transduced with peptides, proteins and nucleotides with intracellular concentrations in the low micromole range. For each cargo, cell type and CPP the optimal conditions must be determined separately.

  18. Novel Reporter for Faithful Monitoring of ERK2 Dynamics in Living Cells and Model Organisms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sipieter, François; Cappe, Benjamin; Gonzalez Pisfil, Mariano; Spriet, Corentin; Bodart, Jean-François; Cailliau-Maggio, Katia; Vandenabeele, Peter; Héliot, Laurent; Riquet, Franck B.

    2015-01-01

    Uncoupling of ERK1/2 phosphorylation from subcellular localization is essential towards the understanding of molecular mechanisms that control ERK1/2-mediated cell-fate decision. ERK1/2 non-catalytic functions and discoveries of new specific anchors responsible of the subcellular compartmentalization of ERK1/2 signaling pathway have been proposed as regulation mechanisms for which dynamic monitoring of ERK1/2 localization is necessary. However, studying the spatiotemporal features of ERK2, for instance, in different cellular processes in living cells and tissues requires a tool that can faithfully report on its subcellular distribution. We developed a novel molecular tool, ERK2-LOC, based on the T2A-mediated coexpression of strictly equimolar levels of eGFP-ERK2 and MEK1, to faithfully visualize ERK2 localization patterns. MEK1 and eGFP-ERK2 were expressed reliably and functionally both in vitro and in single living cells. We then assessed the subcellular distribution and mobility of ERK2-LOC using fluorescence microscopy in non-stimulated conditions and after activation/inhibition of the MAPK/ERK1/2 signaling pathway. Finally, we used our coexpression system in Xenopus laevis embryos during the early stages of development. This is the first report on MEK1/ERK2 T2A-mediated coexpression in living embryos, and we show that there is a strong correlation between the spatiotemporal subcellular distribution of ERK2-LOC and the phosphorylation patterns of ERK1/2. Our approach can be used to study the spatiotemporal localization of ERK2 and its dynamics in a variety of processes in living cells and embryonic tissues. PMID:26517832

  19. Non-Rigid Contour-Based Registration of Cell Nuclei in 2-D Live Cell Microscopy Images Using a Dynamic Elasticity Model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sorokin, Dmitry V; Peterlik, Igor; Tektonidis, Marco; Rohr, Karl; Matula, Pavel

    2018-01-01

    The analysis of the pure motion of subnuclear structures without influence of the cell nucleus motion and deformation is essential in live cell imaging. In this paper, we propose a 2-D contour-based image registration approach for compensation of nucleus motion and deformation in fluorescence microscopy time-lapse sequences. The proposed approach extends our previous approach, which uses a static elasticity model to register cell images. Compared with that scheme, the new approach employs a dynamic elasticity model for the forward simulation of nucleus motion and deformation based on the motion of its contours. The contour matching process is embedded as a constraint into the system of equations describing the elastic behavior of the nucleus. This results in better performance in terms of the registration accuracy. Our approach was successfully applied to real live cell microscopy image sequences of different types of cells including image data that was specifically designed and acquired for evaluation of cell image registration methods. An experimental comparison with the existing contour-based registration methods and an intensity-based registration method has been performed. We also studied the dependence of the results on the choice of method parameters.

  20. g-force induced giant efficiency of nanoparticles internalization into living cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ocampo, Sandra M.; Rodriguez, Vanessa; de La Cueva, Leonor; Salas, Gorka; Carrascosa, Jose. L.; Josefa Rodríguez, María; García-Romero, Noemí; Luis, Jose; Cuñado, F.; Camarero, Julio; Miranda, Rodolfo; Belda-Iniesta, Cristobal; Ayuso-Sacido, Angel

    2015-10-01

    Nanotechnology plays an increasingly important role in the biomedical arena. Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs)-labelled cells is one of the most promising approaches for a fast and reliable evaluation of grafted cells in both preclinical studies and clinical trials. Current procedures to label living cells with IONPs are based on direct incubation or physical approaches based on magnetic or electrical fields, which always display very low cellular uptake efficiencies. Here we show that centrifugation-mediated internalization (CMI) promotes a high uptake of IONPs in glioblastoma tumour cells, just in a few minutes, and via clathrin-independent endocytosis pathway. CMI results in controllable cellular uptake efficiencies at least three orders of magnitude larger than current procedures. Similar trends are found in human mesenchymal stem cells, thereby demonstrating the general feasibility of the methodology, which is easily transferable to any laboratory with great potential for the development of improved biomedical applications.

  1. Quantitative determination of optical trapping strength and viscoelastic moduli inside living cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mas, Josep; Berg-Sørensen, Kirstine; Richardson, Andrew C; Reihani, S Nader S; Oddershede, Lene B

    2013-01-01

    With the success of in vitro single-molecule force measurements obtained in recent years, the next step is to perform quantitative force measurements inside a living cell. Optical traps have proven excellent tools for manipulation, also in vivo, where they can be essentially non-invasive under correct wavelength and exposure conditions. It is a pre-requisite for in vivo quantitative force measurements that a precise and reliable force calibration of the tweezers is performed. There are well-established calibration protocols in purely viscous environments; however, as the cellular cytoplasm is viscoelastic, it would be incorrect to use a calibration procedure relying on a viscous environment. Here we demonstrate a method to perform a correct force calibration inside a living cell. This method (theoretically proposed in Fischer and Berg-Sørensen (2007 J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt. 9 S239)) takes into account the viscoelastic properties of the cytoplasm and relies on a combination of active and passive recordings of the motion of the cytoplasmic object of interest. The calibration procedure allows us to extract absolute values for the viscoelastic moduli of the living cell cytoplasm as well as the force constant describing the optical trap, thus paving the way for quantitative force measurements inside the living cell. Here, we determine both the spring constant of the optical trap and the elastic contribution from the cytoplasm, influencing the motion of naturally occurring tracer particles. The viscoelastic moduli that we find are of the same order of magnitude as moduli found in other cell types by alternative methods. (paper)

  2. Intracellular imaging of docosanol in living cells by coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    You, Sixian; Liu, Yuan; Arp, Zane; Zhao, Youbo; Chaney, Eric J.; Marjanovic, Marina; Boppart, Stephen A.

    2017-07-01

    Docosanol is an over-the-counter topical agent that has proved to be one of the most effective therapies for treating herpes simplex labialis. However, the mechanism by which docosanol suppresses lesion formation remains poorly understood. To elucidate its mechanism of action, we investigated the uptake of docosanol in living cells using coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy. Based on direct visualization of the deuterated docosanol, we observed highly concentrated docosanol inside living cells 24 h after drug treatment. In addition, different spatial patterns of drug accumulation were observed in different cell lines. In keratinocytes, which are the targeted cells of docosanol, the drug molecules appeared to be docking at the periphery of the cell membrane. In contrast, the drug molecules in fibroblasts appeared to accumulate in densely packed punctate regions throughout the cytoplasm. These results suggest that this molecular imaging approach is suitable for the longitudinal tracking of drug molecules in living cells to identify cell-specific trafficking and may also have implications for elucidating the mechanism by which docosanol suppresses lesion formation.

  3. Noninvasive micromanipulation of live HIV-1 infected cells via laser light

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mthunzi, Patience

    2015-12-01

    Live mammalian cells from various tissues of origin can be aseptically and noninvasively micromanipulated via lasers of different regimes. Laser-driven techniques are therefore paving a path toward the advancement of human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV-1) investigations. Studies aimed at the interaction of laser light, nanomaterials, and biological materials can also lead to an understanding of a wealth of disease conditions and result in photonics-based therapies and diagnostic tools. Thus, in our research, both continuous wave and pulsed lasers operated at varying wavelengths are employed, as they possess special properties that allow classical biomedical applications. This paper discusses photo-translocation of antiretroviral drugs into HIV-1 permissive cells and preliminary results of low-level laser therapy (LLLT) in HIV-1 infected cells.

  4. An integrated on-line irradiation and in situ live cell imaging system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liang, Ying; Fu, Qibin; Wang, Weikang; Liu, Yu; Liu, Feng; Yang, Gen, E-mail: gen.yang@pku.edu.cn; Wang, Yugang

    2015-09-01

    Ionizing radiation poses a threat to genome integrity by introducing DNA damages, particularly DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) in cells. Understanding how cells react to DSB and maintain genome integrity is of major importance, since increasing evidences indicate the links of DSB with genome instability and cancer predispositions. However, tracking the dynamics of DNA damages and repair response to ionizing radiation in individual cell is difficult. Here we describe the development of an on-line irradiation and in situ live cell imaging system based on isotopic sources at Institute of Heavy Ion Physics, Peking University. The system was designed to irradiate cells and in situ observe the cellular responses to ionizing radiation in real time. On-line irradiation was achieved by mounting a metal framework that hold an isotopic γ source above the cell culture dish for γ irradiation; or by integrating an isotopic α source to an objective lens under the specialized cell culture dish for α irradiation. Live cell imaging was performed on a confocal microscope with an environmental chamber installed on the microscope stage. Culture conditions in the environment chamber such as CO{sub 2}, O{sub 2} concentration as well as temperature are adjustable, which further extends the capacity of the system and allows more flexible experimental design. We demonstrate the use of this system by tracking the DSB foci formation and disappearance in individual cells after exposure to irradiation. On-line irradiation together with in situ live cell imaging in adjustable culture conditions, the system overall provides a powerful tool for investigation of cellular and subcellular response to ionizing radiation under different physiological conditions such as hyperthermia or hypoxia.

  5. An integrated on-line irradiation and in situ live cell imaging system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liang, Ying; Fu, Qibin; Wang, Weikang; Liu, Yu; Liu, Feng; Yang, Gen; Wang, Yugang

    2015-01-01

    Ionizing radiation poses a threat to genome integrity by introducing DNA damages, particularly DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) in cells. Understanding how cells react to DSB and maintain genome integrity is of major importance, since increasing evidences indicate the links of DSB with genome instability and cancer predispositions. However, tracking the dynamics of DNA damages and repair response to ionizing radiation in individual cell is difficult. Here we describe the development of an on-line irradiation and in situ live cell imaging system based on isotopic sources at Institute of Heavy Ion Physics, Peking University. The system was designed to irradiate cells and in situ observe the cellular responses to ionizing radiation in real time. On-line irradiation was achieved by mounting a metal framework that hold an isotopic γ source above the cell culture dish for γ irradiation; or by integrating an isotopic α source to an objective lens under the specialized cell culture dish for α irradiation. Live cell imaging was performed on a confocal microscope with an environmental chamber installed on the microscope stage. Culture conditions in the environment chamber such as CO 2 , O 2 concentration as well as temperature are adjustable, which further extends the capacity of the system and allows more flexible experimental design. We demonstrate the use of this system by tracking the DSB foci formation and disappearance in individual cells after exposure to irradiation. On-line irradiation together with in situ live cell imaging in adjustable culture conditions, the system overall provides a powerful tool for investigation of cellular and subcellular response to ionizing radiation under different physiological conditions such as hyperthermia or hypoxia

  6. An integrated on-line irradiation and in situ live cell imaging system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liang, Ying; Fu, Qibin; Wang, Weikang; Liu, Yu; Liu, Feng; Yang, Gen; Wang, Yugang

    2015-09-01

    Ionizing radiation poses a threat to genome integrity by introducing DNA damages, particularly DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) in cells. Understanding how cells react to DSB and maintain genome integrity is of major importance, since increasing evidences indicate the links of DSB with genome instability and cancer predispositions. However, tracking the dynamics of DNA damages and repair response to ionizing radiation in individual cell is difficult. Here we describe the development of an on-line irradiation and in situ live cell imaging system based on isotopic sources at Institute of Heavy Ion Physics, Peking University. The system was designed to irradiate cells and in situ observe the cellular responses to ionizing radiation in real time. On-line irradiation was achieved by mounting a metal framework that hold an isotopic γ source above the cell culture dish for γ irradiation; or by integrating an isotopic α source to an objective lens under the specialized cell culture dish for α irradiation. Live cell imaging was performed on a confocal microscope with an environmental chamber installed on the microscope stage. Culture conditions in the environment chamber such as CO2, O2 concentration as well as temperature are adjustable, which further extends the capacity of the system and allows more flexible experimental design. We demonstrate the use of this system by tracking the DSB foci formation and disappearance in individual cells after exposure to irradiation. On-line irradiation together with in situ live cell imaging in adjustable culture conditions, the system overall provides a powerful tool for investigation of cellular and subcellular response to ionizing radiation under different physiological conditions such as hyperthermia or hypoxia.

  7. Colorimetric detection of endogenous hydrogen sulfide production in living cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahn, Yong Jin; Lee, Young Ju; Lee, Jaemyeon; Lee, Doyeon; Park, Hun-Kuk; Lee, Gi-Ja

    2017-04-01

    Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has received great attention as a third gaseous signal transmitter, following nitric oxide and carbon monoxide. In particular, H2S plays an important role in the regulation of cancer cell biology. Therefore, the detection of endogenous H2S concentrations within biological systems can be helpful to understand the role of gasotransmitters in pathophysiology. Although a simple and inexpensive method for the detection of H2S has been developed, its direct and precise measurement in living cells remains a challenge. In this study, we introduced a simple, facile, and inexpensive colorimetric system for selective H2S detection in living cells using a silver-embedded Nafion/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) membrane. This membrane could be easily applied onto a polystyrene microplate cover. First, we optimized the composition of the coating membrane, such as the PVP/Nafion mixing ratio and AgNO3 concentration, as well as the pH of the Na2S (H2S donor) solution and the reaction time. Next, the in vitro performance of a colorimetric detection assay utilizing the silver/Nafion/PVP membrane was evaluated utilizing a known concentration of Na2S standard solution both at room temperature and at 37 °C in a 5% CO2 incubator. As a result, the sensitivity of the colorimetric assay for H2S at 37 °C in the incubator (0.0056 Abs./μM Na2S, R2 = 0.9948) was similar to that at room temperature (0.0055 Abs./μM Na2S, R2 = 0.9967). Moreover, these assays were less sensitive to interference from compounds such as glutathione, L-cysteine (Cys), and dithiothreitol than to the H2S from Na2S. This assay based on the silver/Nafion/PVP membrane also showed excellent reproducibility (2.8% RSD). Finally, we successfully measured the endogenous H2S concentrations in live C6 glioma cells by s-(5‧-adenosyl)-L-methionine stimulation with and without Cys and L-homocysteine, utilizing the silver/Nafion/PVP membrane. In summary, colorimetric assays using silver

  8. Live-Cell Imaging Visualizes Frequent Mitotic Skipping During Senescence-Like Growth Arrest in Mammary Carcinoma Cells Exposed to Ionizing Radiation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Suzuki, Masatoshi, E-mail: msuzuki@nagasaki-u.ac.jp [Department of Radiation Medical Sciences, Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki (Japan); Yamauchi, Motohiro; Oka, Yasuyoshi; Suzuki, Keiji; Yamashita, Shunichi [Department of Radiation Medical Sciences, Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki (Japan)

    2012-06-01

    Purpose: Senescence-like growth arrest in human solid carcinomas is now recognized as the major outcome of radiotherapy. This study was designed to analyze cell cycle during the process of senescence-like growth arrest in mammary carcinoma cells exposed to X-rays. Methods and Materials: Fluorescent ubiquitination-based cell cycle indicators were introduced into the human mammary carcinoma cell line MCF-7. Cell cycle was sequentially monitored by live-cell imaging for up to 5 days after exposure to 10 Gy of X-rays. Results: Live-cell imaging revealed that cell cycle transition from G2 to G1 phase without mitosis, so-called mitotic skipping, was observed in 17.1% and 69.8% of G1- and G2-irradiated cells, respectively. Entry to G1 phase was confirmed by the nuclear accumulation of mKO{sub 2}-hCdt1 as well as cyclin E, which was inversely correlated to the accumulation of G2-specific markers such as mAG-hGeminin and CENP-F. More than 90% of cells skipping mitosis were persistently arrested in G1 phase and showed positive staining for the senescent biochemical marker, which is senescence-associated ss-galactosidase, indicating induction of senescence-like growth arrest accompanied by mitotic skipping. While G2 irradiation with higher doses of X-rays induced mitotic skipping in approximately 80% of cells, transduction of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) for p53 significantly suppressed mitotic skipping, suggesting that ionizing radiation-induced mitotic skipping is associated with p53 function. Conclusions: The present study found the pathway of senescence-like growth arrest in G1 phase without mitotic entry following G2-irradiation.

  9. Live-Cell Imaging Visualizes Frequent Mitotic Skipping During Senescence-Like Growth Arrest in Mammary Carcinoma Cells Exposed to Ionizing Radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suzuki, Masatoshi; Yamauchi, Motohiro; Oka, Yasuyoshi; Suzuki, Keiji; Yamashita, Shunichi

    2012-01-01

    Purpose: Senescence-like growth arrest in human solid carcinomas is now recognized as the major outcome of radiotherapy. This study was designed to analyze cell cycle during the process of senescence-like growth arrest in mammary carcinoma cells exposed to X-rays. Methods and Materials: Fluorescent ubiquitination-based cell cycle indicators were introduced into the human mammary carcinoma cell line MCF-7. Cell cycle was sequentially monitored by live-cell imaging for up to 5 days after exposure to 10 Gy of X-rays. Results: Live-cell imaging revealed that cell cycle transition from G2 to G1 phase without mitosis, so-called mitotic skipping, was observed in 17.1% and 69.8% of G1- and G2-irradiated cells, respectively. Entry to G1 phase was confirmed by the nuclear accumulation of mKO 2 -hCdt1 as well as cyclin E, which was inversely correlated to the accumulation of G2-specific markers such as mAG-hGeminin and CENP-F. More than 90% of cells skipping mitosis were persistently arrested in G1 phase and showed positive staining for the senescent biochemical marker, which is senescence-associated ß-galactosidase, indicating induction of senescence-like growth arrest accompanied by mitotic skipping. While G2 irradiation with higher doses of X-rays induced mitotic skipping in approximately 80% of cells, transduction of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) for p53 significantly suppressed mitotic skipping, suggesting that ionizing radiation-induced mitotic skipping is associated with p53 function. Conclusions: The present study found the pathway of senescence-like growth arrest in G1 phase without mitotic entry following G2-irradiation.

  10. Live cell imaging at the Munich ion microbeam SNAKE - a status report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drexler, Guido A; Siebenwirth, Christian; Drexler, Sophie E; Girst, Stefanie; Greubel, Christoph; Dollinger, Günther; Friedl, Anna A

    2015-02-18

    Ion microbeams are important tools in radiobiological research. Still, the worldwide number of ion microbeam facilities where biological experiments can be performed is limited. Even fewer facilities combine ion microirradiation with live-cell imaging to allow microscopic observation of cellular response reactions starting very fast after irradiation and continuing for many hours. At SNAKE, the ion microbeam facility at the Munich 14 MV tandem accelerator, a large variety of biological experiments are performed on a regular basis. Here, recent developments and ongoing research projects at the ion microbeam SNAKE are presented with specific emphasis on live-cell imaging experiments. An overview of the technical details of the setup is given, including examples of suitable biological samples. By ion beam focusing to submicrometer beam spot size and single ion detection it is possible to target subcellular structures with defined numbers of ions. Focusing of high numbers of ions to single spots allows studying the influence of high local damage density on recruitment of damage response proteins.

  11. Energy, control and DNA structure in the living cell

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wijker, J.E.; Jensen, Peter Ruhdal; Gomes, A. Vaz

    1995-01-01

    Maintenance (let alone growth) of the highly ordered living cell is only possible through the continuous input of free energy. Coupling of energetically downhill processes (such as catabolic reactions) to uphill processes is essential to provide this free energy and is catalyzed by enzymes either...

  12. Detecting protein-protein interactions in living cells

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gottschalk, Marie; Bach, Anders; Hansen, Jakob Lerche

    2009-01-01

    to the endogenous C-terminal peptide of the NMDA receptor, as evaluated by a cell-free protein-protein interaction assay. However, it is important to address both membrane permeability and effect in living cells. Therefore a bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) assay was established, where the C......-terminal of the NMDA receptor and PDZ2 of PSD-95 were fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP) and Renilla luciferase (Rluc) and expressed in COS7 cells. A robust and specific BRET signal was obtained by expression of the appropriate partner proteins and subsequently, the assay was used to evaluate a Tat......The PDZ domain mediated interaction between the NMDA receptor and its intracellular scaffolding protein, PSD-95, is a potential target for treatment of ischemic brain diseases. We have recently developed a number of peptide analogues with improved affinity for the PDZ domains of PSD-95 compared...

  13. Intracellular Delivery of Nanobodies for Imaging of Target Proteins in Live Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Röder, Ruth; Helma, Jonas; Preiß, Tobias; Rädler, Joachim O; Leonhardt, Heinrich; Wagner, Ernst

    2017-01-01

    Cytosolic delivery of nanobodies for molecular target binding and fluorescent labeling in living cells. Fluorescently labeled nanobodies were formulated with sixteen different sequence-defined oligoaminoamides. The delivery of formulated anti-GFP nanobodies into different target protein-containing HeLa cell lines was investigated by flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy. Nanoparticle formation was analyzed by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. The initial oligomer screen identified two cationizable four-arm structured oligomers (734, 735) which mediate intracellular nanobody delivery in a receptor-independent (734) or folate receptor facilitated (735) process. The presence of disulfide-forming cysteines in the oligomers was found critical for the formation of stable protein nanoparticles of around 20 nm diameter. Delivery of labeled GFP nanobodies or lamin nanobodies to their cellular targets was demonstrated by fluorescence microscopy including time lapse studies. Two sequence-defined oligoaminoamides with or without folate for receptor targeting were identified as effective carriers for intracellular nanobody delivery, as exemplified by GFP or lamin binding in living cells. Due to the conserved nanobody core structure, the methods should be applicable for a broad range of nanobodies directed to different intracellular targets.

  14. Optical detection and virotherapy of live metastatic tumor cells in body fluids with vaccinia strains.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Huiqiang Wang

    Full Text Available Metastatic tumor cells in body fluids are important targets for treatment, and critical surrogate markers for evaluating cancer prognosis and therapeutic response. Here we report, for the first time, that live metastatic tumor cells in blood samples from mice bearing human tumor xenografts and in blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples from patients with cancer were successfully detected using a tumor cell-specific recombinant vaccinia virus (VACV. In contrast to the FDA-approved CellSearch system, VACV detects circulating tumor cells (CTCs in a cancer biomarker-independent manner, thus, free of any bias related to the use of antibodies, and can be potentially a universal system for detection of live CTCs of any tumor type, not limited to CTCs of epithelial origin. Furthermore, we demonstrate for the first time that VACV was effective in preventing and reducing circulating tumor cells in mice bearing human tumor xenografts. Importantly, a single intra-peritoneal delivery of VACV resulted in a dramatic decline in the number of tumor cells in the ascitic fluid from a patient with gastric cancer. Taken together, these results suggest VACV to be a useful tool for quantitative detection of live tumor cells in liquid biopsies as well as a potentially effective treatment for reducing or eliminating live tumor cells in body fluids of patients with metastatic disease.

  15. Interplay between carotenoids, hemoproteins and the "life band" origin studied in live Rhodotorula mucilaginosa cells by means of Raman microimaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pacia, Marta Z; Turnau, Katarzyna; Baranska, Malgorzata; Kaczor, Agnieszka

    2015-03-21

    Raman microimaging of live Rhodotorula mucilaginosa cells, cultured under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, showed striking differences in the composition and distribution of cell components. The analysis of these differences and recovery of oxidative phosphorylation upon environmental changes enabled the interrelation of carotenoids, hemoproteins and the unknown species considered as the "Raman signature of life".

  16. Intravital live cell triggered imaging system reveals monocyte patrolling and macrophage migration in atherosclerotic arteries

    Science.gov (United States)

    McArdle, Sara; Chodaczek, Grzegorz; Ray, Nilanjan; Ley, Klaus

    2015-02-01

    Intravital multiphoton imaging of arteries is technically challenging because the artery expands with every heartbeat, causing severe motion artifacts. To study leukocyte activity in atherosclerosis, we developed the intravital live cell triggered imaging system (ILTIS). This system implements cardiac triggered acquisition as well as frame selection and image registration algorithms to produce stable movies of myeloid cell movement in atherosclerotic arteries in live mice. To minimize tissue damage, no mechanical stabilization is used and the artery is allowed to expand freely. ILTIS performs multicolor high frame-rate two-dimensional imaging and full-thickness three-dimensional imaging of beating arteries in live mice. The external carotid artery and its branches (superior thyroid and ascending pharyngeal arteries) were developed as a surgically accessible and reliable model of atherosclerosis. We use ILTIS to demonstrate Cx3cr1GFP monocytes patrolling the lumen of atherosclerotic arteries. Additionally, we developed a new reporter mouse (Apoe-/-Cx3cr1GFP/+Cd11cYFP) to image GFP+ and GFP+YFP+ macrophages "dancing on the spot" and YFP+ macrophages migrating within intimal plaque. ILTIS will be helpful to answer pertinent open questions in the field, including monocyte recruitment and transmigration, macrophage and dendritic cell activity, and motion of other immune cells.

  17. LONG-LIVED BONE MARROW PLASMA CELLS DURING IMMUNE RESPONSE TO ALPHA (1→3 DEXTRAN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. N. Chernyshova

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Production kinetics and some functional properties of long-lived marrow plasma cells were studied in mice immunized with T-independent type 2 antigens. Alpha (1→3 dextran was used as an antigen for immunization. The mice were immunized by dextran, and the numbers of IgM antibody producing cells were determined by ELISPOT method. The cell phenotype was determined by cytofluorimetric technique. In the area of normal bone marrow lymphocytes ~4% of T and ~85% of B cells were detected. About 35% of the cells expressed a plasmocyte marker (CD138; 3% were CD138+IgM+, and about 6% of the lymphocytes were double-positive for CD138+IgA+. Among spleen lymphocytes, 50% of T and 47% of B cells were detected. About 1.5% lymphocytes were CD138+, and 0.5% were positive for CD138 and IgM. Time kinetics of antibody-producing cells in bone marrow and spleen was different. In spleen populations, the peak amounts of antibody-secreting cells have been shown on the day 4; the process abated by the day 28. Vice versa, the numbers of the antibody-producing cells in bone marrow started to increase on the day 4. The process reached its maximum on day 14, and after 28th day became stationary. The in vitro experiments have shown that supplementation of bone marrow cells from immune mice with dextran did not influence their functional activity. It was previously shown for cells responding to T-dependent antigens only. A specific marker for the long-lived plasma cells is still unknown. However, these cells possess a common CD138 marker specific for all plasma cells. A method for isolation of bone marrow CD138+ cells was developed. The CD138+ cells were of 87-97% purity, being enriched in long-lived bone marrow cells, and produced monospecific antibodies.

  18. Live-cell imaging of invasion and intravasation in an artificial microvessel platform.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wong, Andrew D; Searson, Peter C

    2014-09-01

    Methods to visualize metastasis exist, but additional tools to better define the biologic and physical processes underlying invasion and intravasation are still needed. One difficulty in studying metastasis stems from the complexity of the interface between the tumor microenvironment and the vascular system. Here, we report the development of an investigational platform that positions tumor cells next to an artificial vessel embedded in an extracellular matrix. On this platform, we used live-cell fluorescence microscopy to analyze the complex interplay between metastatic cancer cells and a functional artificial microvessel that was lined with endothelial cells. The platform recapitulated known interactions, and its use demonstrated the capabilities for a systematic study of novel physical and biologic parameters involved in invasion and intravasation. In summary, our work offers an important new tool to advance knowledge about metastasis and candidate antimetastatic therapies. ©2014 American Association for Cancer Research.

  19. On strain and stress in living cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cox, Brian N.; Smith, David W.

    2014-11-01

    Recent theoretical simulations of amelogenesis and network formation and new, simple analyses of the basic multicellular unit (BMU) allow estimation of the order of magnitude of the strain energy density in populations of living cells in their natural environment. A similar simple calculation translates recent measurements of the force-displacement relation for contacting cells (cell-cell adhesion energy) into equivalent volume energy densities, which are formed by averaging the changes in contact energy caused by a cell's migration over the cell's volume. The rates of change of these mechanical energy densities (energy density rates) are then compared to the order of magnitude of the metabolic activity of a cell, expressed as a rate of production of metabolic energy per unit volume. The mechanical energy density rates are 4-5 orders of magnitude smaller than the metabolic energy density rate in amelogenesis or bone remodeling in the BMU, which involve modest cell migration velocities, and 2-3 orders of magnitude smaller for innervation of the gut or angiogenesis, where migration rates are among the highest for all cell types. For representative cell-cell adhesion gradients, the mechanical energy density rate is 6 orders of magnitude smaller than the metabolic energy density rate. The results call into question the validity of using simple constitutive laws to represent living cells. They also imply that cells need not migrate as inanimate objects of gradients in an energy field, but are better regarded as self-powered automata that may elect to be guided by such gradients or move otherwise. Thus Ġel=d/dt 1/2 >[(C11+C12)ɛ02+2μγ02]=(C11+C12)ɛ0ɛ˙0+2μγ0γ˙0 or Ġel=ηEɛ0ɛ˙0+η‧Eγ0γ˙0 with 1.4≤η≤3.4 and 0.7≤η‧≤0.8 for Poisson's ratio in the range 0.2≤ν≤0.4 and η=1.95 and η‧=0.75 for ν=0.3. The spatial distribution of shear strains arising within an individual cell as cells slide past one another during amelogenesis is not known

  20. The radiation effects on the living cell

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sage, E.; Dutrillaux, B.; Soussi, Th.; Boiteux, S.; Lopez, B.; Feunteun, J.

    1999-06-01

    This publication is a presentation of particular points discussed during the colloquium of the 15-18 june 1999, for which scientific researches are performed at the CEA/CNRS. They deal with the radiobiology, for the radiation effects on living matter; with the DNA, for the knowledge and repair mechanisms on cells submitted to ionizing radiations; with the exposition to UV in correlation with neoplasms; with the P53 gene which is a tumour suppressor. (A.L.B.)

  1. Instant live-cell super-resolution imaging of cellular structures by nanoinjection of fluorescent probes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hennig, Simon; van de Linde, Sebastian; Lummer, Martina; Simonis, Matthias; Huser, Thomas; Sauer, Markus

    2015-02-11

    Labeling internal structures within living cells with standard fluorescent probes is a challenging problem. Here, we introduce a novel intracellular staining method that enables us to carefully control the labeling process and provides instant access to the inner structures of living cells. Using a hollow glass capillary with a diameter of <100 nm, we deliver functionalized fluorescent probes directly into the cells by (di)electrophoretic forces. The label density can be adjusted and traced directly during the staining process by fluorescence microscopy. We demonstrate the potential of this technique by delivering and imaging a range of commercially available cell-permeable and nonpermeable fluorescent probes to cells.

  2. Determination of cell cycle phases in live B16 melanoma cells using IRMS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bedolla, Diana E; Kenig, Saša; Mitri, Elisa; Ferraris, Paolo; Marcello, Alessandro; Grenci, Gianluca; Vaccari, Lisa

    2013-07-21

    The knowledge of cell cycle phase distribution is of paramount importance for understanding cellular behaviour under normal and stressed growth conditions. This task is usually assessed using Flow Cytometry (FC) or immunohistochemistry. Here we report on the use of FTIR microspectroscopy in Microfluidic Devices (MD-IRMS) as an alternative technique for studying cell cycle distribution in live cells. Asynchronous, S- and G0-synchronized B16 mouse melanoma cells were studied by running parallel experiments based on MD-IRMS and FC using Propidium Iodide (PI) staining. MD-IRMS experiments have been done using silicon-modified BaF2 devices, where the thin silicon layer prevents BaF2 dissolution without affecting the transparency of the material and therefore enabling a better assessment of the Phosphate I (PhI) and II (PhII) bands. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) of cellular microspectra in the 1300-1000 cm(-1) region pointed out a distribution of cells among clusters, which is in good agreement with FC results among G0/G1, S and G2/M phases. The differentiation is mostly driven by the intensity of PhI and PhII bands. In particular, PhI almost doubles from the G0/G1 to G2/M phase, in agreement with the trend followed by nucleic acids during cellular progression. MD-IRMS is then proposed as a powerful method for the in situ determination of the cell cycle stage of an individual cell, without any labelling or staining, which gives the advantage of possibly monitoring specific cellular responses to several types of stimuli by clearly separating the spectral signatures related to the cellular response from those of cells that are normally progressing.

  3. Biophysical Techniques for Detection of cAMP and cGMP in Living Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Viacheslav O. Nikolaev

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Cyclic nucleotides cAMP and cGMP are ubiquitous second messengers which regulate myriads of functions in virtually all eukaryotic cells. Their intracellular effects are often mediated via discrete subcellular signaling microdomains. In this review, we will discuss state-of-the-art techniques to measure cAMP and cGMP in biological samples with a particular focus on live cell imaging approaches, which allow their detection with high temporal and spatial resolution in living cells and tissues. Finally, we will describe how these techniques can be applied to the analysis of second messenger dynamics in subcellular signaling microdomains.

  4. Observations of radiation-induced chromosome fragment loss in live mammalian cells in culture, and its effect on colony-forming ability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grote, S.J.; Joshi, G.P.; Revell, S.H.; Shaw, C.A.

    1981-01-01

    A preceding paper (Grote, Joshi, Revell and Shaw 1981) describe a method for the direct scrutiny of live cultured mammalian cells with a microscope, and reported that all diploid Syrian hamster cells (BHK 21 C13) of a sample given 1.4 Gy of 220 kV X-rays in G1 reached post-radiation mitosis without discernible abnormality, but then diverged in observed behaviour: descendant cells from some first mitoses continued to proliferate normally while cells from other first mitoses behaved abnormally and produced either slow-growth or stop-growth colonies. This paper completes the study of the same irradiated cell sample, and shows that these post-mitotic differences in clonogenic ability were related to acentric chromosome fragment losses at post-radiation mitosis, which were detected in live daughter-cell pairs as micronuclei. The proportion of live daughter-cell pairs scored as deficient was at least 80 per cent of the proportion of comparable fixed-and-stained mitoses with detected acentric fragments. (author)

  5. Long-term live cell imaging and automated 4D analysis of drosophila neuroblast lineages.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catarina C F Homem

    Full Text Available The developing Drosophila brain is a well-studied model system for neurogenesis and stem cell biology. In the Drosophila central brain, around 200 neural stem cells called neuroblasts undergo repeated rounds of asymmetric cell division. These divisions typically generate a larger self-renewing neuroblast and a smaller ganglion mother cell that undergoes one terminal division to create two differentiating neurons. Although single mitotic divisions of neuroblasts can easily be imaged in real time, the lack of long term imaging procedures has limited the use of neuroblast live imaging for lineage analysis. Here we describe a method that allows live imaging of cultured Drosophila neuroblasts over multiple cell cycles for up to 24 hours. We describe a 4D image analysis protocol that can be used to extract cell cycle times and growth rates from the resulting movies in an automated manner. We use it to perform lineage analysis in type II neuroblasts where clonal analysis has indicated the presence of a transit-amplifying population that potentiates the number of neurons. Indeed, our experiments verify type II lineages and provide quantitative parameters for all cell types in those lineages. As defects in type II neuroblast lineages can result in brain tumor formation, our lineage analysis method will allow more detailed and quantitative analysis of tumorigenesis and asymmetric cell division in the Drosophila brain.

  6. The live cell irradiation and observation setup at SNAKE

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hable, V. [Angewandte Physik und Messtechnik LRT2, UniBw-Muenchen, 85577 Neubiberg (Germany)], E-mail: volker.hable@unibw.de; Greubel, C.; Bergmaier, A.; Reichart, P. [Angewandte Physik und Messtechnik LRT2, UniBw-Muenchen, 85577 Neubiberg (Germany); Hauptner, A.; Kruecken, R. [Physik Department E12, TU-Muenchen, 85748 Garching (Germany); Strickfaden, H.; Dietzel, S.; Cremer, T. [Department Biologie II, LMU-Muenchen, 82152 Martinsried (Germany); Drexler, G.A.; Friedl, A.A. [Strahlenbiologisches Institut, LMU-Muenchen, 80336 Muenchen (Germany); Dollinger, G. [Angewandte Physik und Messtechnik LRT2, UniBw-Muenchen, 85577 Neubiberg (Germany)

    2009-06-15

    We describe a new setup at the ion microprobe SNAKE (Superconducting Nanoscope for Applied nuclear (Kern-) physics Experiments) at the Munich 14 MV Tandem accelerator that facilitates both living cell irradiation with sub micrometer resolution and online optical imaging of the cells before and after irradiation by state of the art phase contrast and fluorescence microscopy. The cells are kept at standard cell growth conditions at 37 {sup o}C in cell culture medium. After irradiation it is possible to switch from single ion irradiation conditions to cell observation within 0.5 s. First experiments were performed targeting substructures of a cell nucleus that were tagged by TexasRed labeled nucleotides incorporated in the cellular DNA by 55 MeV single carbon ion irradiation. In addition we show first online sequences of short time kinetics of Mdc1 protein accumulation in the vicinity of double strand breaks after carbon ion irradiation.

  7. Studying biomolecule localization by engineering bacterial cell wall curvature.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lars D Renner

    Full Text Available In this article we describe two techniques for exploring the relationship between bacterial cell shape and the intracellular organization of proteins. First, we created microchannels in a layer of agarose to reshape live bacterial cells and predictably control their mean cell wall curvature, and quantified the influence of curvature on the localization and distribution of proteins in vivo. Second, we used agarose microchambers to reshape bacteria whose cell wall had been chemically and enzymatically removed. By combining microstructures with different geometries and fluorescence microscopy, we determined the relationship between bacterial shape and the localization for two different membrane-associated proteins: i the cell-shape related protein MreB of Escherichia coli, which is positioned along the long axis of the rod-shaped cell; and ii the negative curvature-sensing cell division protein DivIVA of Bacillus subtilis, which is positioned primarily at cell division sites. Our studies of intracellular organization in live cells of E. coli and B. subtilis demonstrate that MreB is largely excluded from areas of high negative curvature, whereas DivIVA localizes preferentially to regions of high negative curvature. These studies highlight a unique approach for studying the relationship between cell shape and intracellular organization in intact, live bacteria.

  8. HoloMonitor M4: holographic imaging cytometer for real-time kinetic label-free live-cell analysis of adherent cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sebesta, Mikael; Egelberg, Peter J.; Langberg, Anders; Lindskov, Jens-Henrik; Alm, Kersti; Janicke, Birgit

    2016-03-01

    Live-cell imaging enables studying dynamic cellular processes that cannot be visualized in fixed-cell assays. An increasing number of scientists in academia and the pharmaceutical industry are choosing live-cell analysis over or in addition to traditional fixed-cell assays. We have developed a time-lapse label-free imaging cytometer HoloMonitorM4. HoloMonitor M4 assists researchers to overcome inherent disadvantages of fluorescent analysis, specifically effects of chemical labels or genetic modifications which can alter cellular behavior. Additionally, label-free analysis is simple and eliminates the costs associated with staining procedures. The underlying technology principle is based on digital off-axis holography. While multiple alternatives exist for this type of analysis, we prioritized our developments to achieve the following: a) All-inclusive system - hardware and sophisticated cytometric analysis software; b) Ease of use enabling utilization of instrumentation by expert- and entrylevel researchers alike; c) Validated quantitative assay end-points tracked over time such as optical path length shift, optical volume and multiple derived imaging parameters; d) Reliable digital autofocus; e) Robust long-term operation in the incubator environment; f) High throughput and walk-away capability; and finally g) Data management suitable for single- and multi-user networks. We provide examples of HoloMonitor applications of label-free cell viability measurements and monitoring of cell cycle phase distribution.

  9. Castration-Resistant Lgr5+ Cells Are Long-Lived Stem Cells Required for Prostatic Regeneration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bu-er Wang

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available The adult prostate possesses a significant regenerative capacity that is of great interest for understanding adult stem cell biology. We demonstrate that leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor 5 (Lgr5 is expressed in a rare population of prostate epithelial progenitor cells, and a castration-resistant Lgr5+ population exists in regressed prostate tissue. Genetic lineage tracing revealed that Lgr5+ cells and their progeny are primarily luminal. Lgr5+ castration-resistant cells are long lived and upon regeneration, both luminal Lgr5+ cells and basal Lgr5+ cells expand. Moreover, single Lgr5+ cells can generate multilineage prostatic structures in renal transplantation assays. Additionally, Lgr5+ cell depletion revealed that the regenerative potential of the castrated adult prostate depends on Lgr5+ cells. Together, these data reveal insights into the cellular hierarchy of castration-resistant Lgr5+ cells, indicate a requirement for Lgr5+ cells during prostatic regeneration, and identify an Lgr5+ adult stem cell population in the prostate.

  10. Exploring the Leishmania Hydrophilic Acylated Surface Protein B (HASPB) Export Pathway by Live Cell Imaging Methods.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacLean, Lorna; Price, Helen; O'Toole, Peter

    2016-01-01

    Leishmania major is a human-infective protozoan parasite transmitted by the bite of the female phlebotomine sand fly. The L. major hydrophilic acylated surface protein B (HASPB) is only expressed in infective parasite stages suggesting a role in parasite virulence. HASPB is a "nonclassically" secreted protein that lacks a conventional signal peptide, reaching the cell surface by an alternative route to the classical ER-Golgi pathway. Instead HASPB trafficking to and exposure on the parasite plasma membrane requires dual N-terminal acylation. Here, we use live cell imaging methods to further explore this pathway allowing visualization of key events in real time at the individual cell level. These methods include live cell imaging using fluorescent reporters to determine the subcellular localization of wild type and acylation site mutation HASPB18-GFP fusion proteins, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) to analyze the dynamics of HASPB in live cells, and live antibody staining to detect surface exposure of HASPB by confocal microscopy.

  11. Fully synthetic phage-like system for screening mixtures of small molecules in live cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Byk, Gerardo; Partouche, Shirly; Weiss, Aryeh; Margel, Shlomo; Khandadash, Raz

    2010-05-10

    A synthetic "phage-like" system was designed for screening mixtures of small molecules in live cells. The core of the system consists of 2 mum diameter cross-linked monodispersed microspheres bearing a panel of fluorescent tags and peptides or small molecules either directly synthesized or covalently conjugated to the microspheres. The microsphere mixtures were screened for affinity to cell line PC-3 (prostate cancer model) by incubation with live cells, and as was with phage-display peptide methods, unbound microspheres were removed by repeated washings followed by total lysis of cells and analysis of the bound microspheres by flow-cytometry. Similar to phage-display peptide screening, this method can be applied even in the absence of prior information about the cellular targets of the candidate ligands, which makes the system especially interesting for selection of molecules with high affinity for desired cells, tissues, or tumors. The advantage of the proposed system is the possibility of screening synthetic non-natural peptides or small molecules that cannot be expressed and screened using phage display libraries. A library composed of small molecules synthesized by the Ugi reaction was screened, and a small molecule, Rak-2, which strongly binds to PC-3 cells was found. Rak-2 was then individually synthesized and validated in a complementary whole cell-based binding assay, as well as by live cell microscopy. This new system demonstrates that a mixture of molecules bound to subcellular sized microspheres can be screened on plated cells. Together with other methods using subcellular sized particles for cellular multiplexing, this method represents an important milestone toward high throughput screening of mixtures of small molecules in live cells and in vivo with potential applications in the fields of drug delivery and diagnostic imaging.

  12. Use of luciferase probes to measure ATP in living cells and animals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morciano, Giampaolo; Sarti, Alba Clara; Marchi, Saverio; Missiroli, Sonia; Falzoni, Simonetta; Raffaghello, Lizzia; Pistoia, Vito; Giorgi, Carlotta; Di Virgilio, Francesco; Pinton, Paolo

    2017-08-01

    ATP, the energy exchange factor that connects anabolism and catabolism, is required for major reactions and processes that occur in living cells, such as muscle contraction, phosphorylation and active transport. ATP is also the key molecule in extracellular purinergic signaling mechanisms, with an established crucial role in inflammation and several additional disease conditions. Here, we describe detailed protocols to measure the ATP concentration in isolated living cells and animals using luminescence techniques based on targeted luciferase probes. In the presence of magnesium, oxygen and ATP, the protein luciferase catalyzes oxidation of the substrate luciferin, which is associated with light emission. Recombinantly expressed wild-type luciferase is exclusively cytosolic; however, adding specific targeting sequences can modify its cellular localization. Using this strategy, we have constructed luciferase chimeras targeted to the mitochondrial matrix and the outer surface of the plasma membrane. Here, we describe optimized protocols for monitoring ATP concentrations in the cytosol, mitochondrial matrix and pericellular space in living cells via an overall procedure that requires an average of 3 d. In addition, we present a detailed protocol for the in vivo detection of extracellular ATP in mice using luciferase-transfected reporter cells. This latter procedure may require up to 25 d to complete.

  13. Live-cell Imaging of Pol II Promoter Activity to Monitor Gene expression with RNA IMAGEtag reporters

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shin, Ilchung [Ames Laboratory; Ray, Judhajeet [Ames Laboratory; Gupta, Vinayak [Iowa State University; Ilgu, Muslum [Ames Laboratory; Beasley, Jonathan [Iowa State University; Bendickson, Lee [Ames Laboratory; Mehanovic, Samir [Molecular Express; Kraus, George A. [Iowa State University; Nilsen-Hamilton, Marit [Ames Laboratory

    2014-04-20

    We describe a ribonucleic acid (RNA) reporter system for live-cell imaging of gene expression to detect changes in polymerase II activity on individual promoters in individual cells. The reporters use strings of RNA aptamers that constitute IMAGEtags (Intracellular MultiAptamer GEnetic tags) that can be expressed from a promoter of choice. For imaging, the cells are incubated with their ligands that are separately conjugated with one of the FRET pair, Cy3 and Cy5. The IMAGEtags were expressed in yeast from the GAL1, ADH1 or ACT1 promoters. Transcription from all three promoters was imaged in live cells and transcriptional increases from the GAL1 promoter were observed with time after adding galactose. Expression of the IMAGEtags did not affect cell proliferation or endogenous gene expression. Advantages of this method are that no foreign proteins are produced in the cells that could be toxic or otherwise influence the cellular response as they accumulate, the IMAGEtags are short lived and oxygen is not required to generate their signals. The IMAGEtag RNA reporter system provides a means of tracking changes in transcriptional activity in live cells and in real time.

  14. Living biointerfaces based on non-pathogenic bacteria to direct cell differentiation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodrigo-Navarro, Aleixandre; Rico, Patricia; Saadeddin, Anas; Garcia, Andres J.; Salmeron-Sanchez, Manuel

    2014-07-01

    Genetically modified Lactococcus lactis, non-pathogenic bacteria expressing the FNIII7-10 fibronectin fragment as a protein membrane have been used to create a living biointerface between synthetic materials and mammalian cells. This FNIII7-10 fragment comprises the RGD and PHSRN sequences of fibronectin to bind α5β1 integrins and triggers signalling for cell adhesion, spreading and differentiation. We used L. lactis strain to colonize material surfaces and produce stable biofilms presenting the FNIII7-10 fragment readily available to cells. Biofilm density is easily tunable and remains stable for several days. Murine C2C12 myoblasts seeded over mature biofilms undergo bipolar alignment and form differentiated myotubes, a process triggered by the FNIII7-10 fragment. This biointerface based on living bacteria can be further modified to express any desired biochemical signal, establishing a new paradigm in biomaterial surface functionalisation for biomedical applications.

  15. Open-dish incubator for live cell imaging with an inverted microscope.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heidemann, Steven R; Lamoureux, Phillip; Ngo, Kha; Reynolds, Matthew; Buxbaum, Robert E

    2003-10-01

    Here we describe the design and fabrication of an inexpensive cell culture incubator for the stage of an inverted light microscope for use in live cell imaging. This device maintains the temperature of the cell culture at 37 degrees C with great stability and, after reaching equilibrium, provides focal stability of an image for 20-25 min with oil-immersion lenses. We describe two versions of the incubator: one for use with standard 60-mm plastic culture dishes, and the other version for imaging of cells on glass coverslips. Either can be made for less than $400. Most components are widely available commercially, and it requires only simple wiring and 3 h to assemble. Although the device is generally useful for live cell imaging on an inverted microscope, it is particularly suitable for work in which instruments are introduced into the culture, such as electrophysiology or micromanipulation. The design is based on the principle that control performance is limited by the lag time between detection and response. The key element of the design is a heated, temperature-controlled aluminum ring serving as a mini-incubator surrounding the culture vessel. For this reason, we call our design a "ringcubator."

  16. Cationic nanoparticles induce nanoscale disruption in living cell plasma membranes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Jiumei; Hessler, Jessica A; Putchakayala, Krishna; Panama, Brian K; Khan, Damian P; Hong, Seungpyo; Mullen, Douglas G; Dimaggio, Stassi C; Som, Abhigyan; Tew, Gregory N; Lopatin, Anatoli N; Baker, James R; Holl, Mark M Banaszak; Orr, Bradford G

    2009-08-13

    It has long been recognized that cationic nanoparticles induce cell membrane permeability. Recently, it has been found that cationic nanoparticles induce the formation and/or growth of nanoscale holes in supported lipid bilayers. In this paper, we show that noncytotoxic concentrations of cationic nanoparticles induce 30-2000 pA currents in 293A (human embryonic kidney) and KB (human epidermoid carcinoma) cells, consistent with a nanoscale defect such as a single hole or group of holes in the cell membrane ranging from 1 to 350 nm(2) in total area. Other forms of nanoscale defects, including the nanoparticle porating agents adsorbing onto or intercalating into the lipid bilayer, are also consistent; although the size of the defect must increase to account for any reduction in ion conduction, as compared to a water channel. An individual defect forming event takes 1-100 ms, while membrane resealing may occur over tens of seconds. Patch-clamp data provide direct evidence for the formation of nanoscale defects in living cell membranes. The cationic polymer data are compared and contrasted with patch-clamp data obtained for an amphiphilic phenylene ethynylene antimicrobial oligomer (AMO-3), a small molecule that is proposed to make well-defined 3.4 nm holes in lipid bilayers. Here, we observe data that are consistent with AMO-3 making approximately 3 nm holes in living cell membranes.

  17. Feasibility study for the use of PADC as a radiation detector for living cell cultures

    CERN Document Server

    Meesen, G; Gestel, S V; Oostveldt, P V

    1999-01-01

    In the framework of an ESA project, a microbiological experiment in space is planned. In this experiment a cell culture will be exposed to cosmic radiation onboard a spacecraft. Because the living cell culture will be directly on a nuclear track detector stack, this detector will be submitted to a different environment than normally used. The temperature will be 37 deg. C and the culture will be in a biological growth medium. Tests have been conducted to assess the possible use of PADC in these conditions. For this, a series of alpha irradiated detectors have been exposed for different periods of time (up to 1 month) to these 'biological' conditions. The radiological properties as well as the mechanical properties (swelling...) have been investigated. Results show no influence of the biological environment on the PADC, which makes it useable under these circumstances.

  18. Feasibility study for the use of PADC as a radiation detector for living cell cultures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meesen, G.; Poffijn, A.; Gestel, S. van; Oostveldt, P. van

    1999-01-01

    In the framework of an ESA project, a microbiological experiment in space is planned. In this experiment a cell culture will be exposed to cosmic radiation onboard a spacecraft. Because the living cell culture will be directly on a nuclear track detector stack, this detector will be submitted to a different environment than normally used. The temperature will be 37 deg. C and the culture will be in a biological growth medium. Tests have been conducted to assess the possible use of PADC in these conditions. For this, a series of alpha irradiated detectors have been exposed for different periods of time (up to 1 month) to these 'biological' conditions. The radiological properties as well as the mechanical properties (swelling...) have been investigated. Results show no influence of the biological environment on the PADC, which makes it useable under these circumstances

  19. Classification of phytoplankton cells as live or dead using the vital stains fluorescein diacetate and 5-chloromethylfluorescein diacetate.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacIntyre, Hugh L; Cullen, John J

    2016-08-01

    Regulations for ballast water treatment specify limits on the concentrations of living cells in discharge water. The vital stains fluorescein diacetate (FDA) and 5-chloromethylfluorescein diacetate (CMFDA) in combination have been recommended for use in verification of ballast water treatment technology. We tested the effectiveness of FDA and CMFDA, singly and in combination, in discriminating between living and heat-killed populations of 24 species of phytoplankton from seven divisions, verifying with quantitative growth assays that uniformly live and dead populations were compared. The diagnostic signal, per-cell fluorescence intensity, was measured by flow cytometry and alternate discriminatory thresholds were defined statistically from the frequency distributions of the dead or living cells. Species were clustered by staining patterns: for four species, the staining of live versus dead cells was distinct, and live-dead classification was essentially error free. But overlap between the frequency distributions of living and heat-killed cells in the other taxa led to unavoidable errors, well in excess of 20% in many. In 4 very weakly staining taxa, the mean fluorescence intensity in the heat-killed cells was higher than that of the living cells, which is inconsistent with the assumptions of the method. Applying the criteria of ≤5% false negative plus ≤5% false positive errors, and no significant loss of cells due to staining, FDA and FDA+CMFDA gave acceptably accurate results for only 8-10 of 24 species (i.e., 33%-42%). CMFDA was the least effective stain and its addition to FDA did not improve the performance of FDA alone. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Phycology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Phycological Society of America.

  20. Cell biochemistry studied by single-molecule imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mashanov, G I; Nenasheva, T A; Peckham, M; Molloy, J E

    2006-11-01

    Over the last decade, there have been remarkable developments in live-cell imaging. We can now readily observe individual protein molecules within living cells and this should contribute to a systems level understanding of biological pathways. Direct observation of single fluorophores enables several types of molecular information to be gathered. Temporal and spatial trajectories enable diffusion constants and binding kinetics to be deduced, while analyses of fluorescence lifetime, intensity, polarization or spectra give chemical and conformational information about molecules in their cellular context. By recording the spatial trajectories of pairs of interacting molecules, formation of larger molecular complexes can be studied. In the future, multicolour and multiparameter imaging of single molecules in live cells will be a powerful analytical tool for systems biology. Here, we discuss measurements of single-molecule mobility and residency at the plasma membrane of live cells. Analysis of diffusional paths at the plasma membrane gives information about its physical properties and measurement of temporal trajectories enables rates of binding and dissociation to be derived. Meanwhile, close scrutiny of individual fluorophore trajectories enables ideas about molecular dimerization and oligomerization related to function to be tested directly.

  1. Direct imaging of APP proteolysis in living cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Niccoló Parenti

    2017-04-01

    proteolytic processing of APP in real time. In order to allow the discrimination between the α- and the β-secretase activity, we have created a variant of mChAPPmGFP with a mutation that inhibits the α-secretase cleavage without perturbing the β-secretase processing. Moreover, we obtained a quantitatively robust estimate of the changes in the red/green ratio for the above conditions by using a flow cytometer able to simultaneously excite and measure the red and green fluorescence. Our novel approach lay the foundation for a bioassay suitable to study the effect of drugs or particular conditions, to investigate in an unbiased way the the proteolytic processing of APP in single living cells in order, and to elucidate the causes of the variability and the factors driving the processing of APP.

  2. Direct imaging of APP proteolysis in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parenti, Niccoló; Del Grosso, Ambra; Antoni, Claudia; Cecchini, Marco; Corradetti, Renato; Pavone, Francesco S; Calamai, Martino

    2017-01-01

    of APP in real time. In order to allow the discrimination between the α - and the β -secretase activity, we have created a variant of mChAPPmGFP with a mutation that inhibits the α -secretase cleavage without perturbing the β -secretase processing. Moreover, we obtained a quantitatively robust estimate of the changes in the red/green ratio for the above conditions by using a flow cytometer able to simultaneously excite and measure the red and green fluorescence. Our novel approach lay the foundation for a bioassay suitable to study the effect of drugs or particular conditions, to investigate in an unbiased way the the proteolytic processing of APP in single living cells in order, and to elucidate the causes of the variability and the factors driving the processing of APP.

  3. Understanding dynamic changes in live cell adhesion with neutron reflectometry

    Science.gov (United States)

    Junghans, Ann

    Understanding the structure and functionality of biological systems on a nanometer-resolution and short temporal scales is important for solving complex biological problems, developing innovative treatment, and advancing the design of highly functionalized biomimetic materials. For example, adhesion of cells to an underlying substrate plays a crucial role in physiology and disease development, and has been investigated with great interest for several decades. In the talk, we would like to highlight recent advances in utilizing neutron scattering to study bio-related structures in dynamic conditions (e . g . under the shear flow) including in-situ investigations of the interfacial properties of living cells. The strength of neutron reflectometry is its non-pertubative nature, the ability to probe buried interfaces with nanometer resolution and its sensitivity to light elements like hydrogen and carbon. That allows us to study details of cell - substrate interfaces that are not accessible with any other standard techniques. We studied the adhesion of human brain tumor cells (U251) to quartz substrates and their responses to the external mechanical forces. Such cells are isolated within the central nervous system which makes them difficult to reach with conventional therapies and therefore making them highly invasive. Our results reveal changes in the thickness and composition of the adhesion layer (a layer between the cell lipid membrane and the quartz substrate), largely composed of hyaluronic acid and associated proteoglycans, when the cells were subjected to shear stress. Further studies will allow us to determine more conditions triggering changes in the composition of the bio-material in the adhesion layer. This, in turn, can help to identify changes that correlate with tumor invasiveness, which can have significant medical impact for the development of targeted anti-invasive therapies.

  4. Gold nanoparticles delivery in mammalian live cells: a critical review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raphaël Lévy

    2010-02-01

    the University of Liverpool as a Post-doctoral Marie Curie Research Fellow. In 2006, he obtained a prestigious David Phillips Fellowship, to develop single particle-based imaging in living cells (photothermal microscopy. His research interests include the design and characterization of nanomaterials and their interactions with living cells. Umbreen Shaheen completed her Master in Zoology and then lectured at the University of Balochistan. She studied biotechnology at the National Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE, Pakistan and is currently doing her PhD at the University of Liverpool, on intracellular delivery of peptide-capped gold nanoparticles. Yann Cesbron is a PhD student at the University of Liverpool, developing photothermal microscopy for biological imaging. He graduated at the University Louis Pasteur (Strasbourg, France with a Master of Science in Condensed Matter Physics and a second Master of Science in Polymer Materials. He moved to Liverpool in 2006 to start his PhD. Violaine Sée is a BBSRC David Phillips Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool. She graduated in Chemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg (France. After a Master in Pharmacology, in 2001 she obtained her PhD in Pharmacology and Neurobiology at the University Louis Pasteur. She was then assistant lecturer and subsequently moved to the University of Liverpool as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow. In 2005, she obtained a prestigious David Phillips Fellowship, to develop her work on intracellular signaling dynamics. She is focusing on the imaging of single living cells in order to understand regulation of gene transcription and cell fate. She has recently been interested in using new techniques for single molecule imaging in live cells based on the use of gold nanoparticles.

  5. Analysis of surface properties of fixed and live cells using derivatized agarose beads.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Navarro, Vanessa M; Walker, Sherri L; Badali, Oliver; Abundis, Maria I; Ngo, Lylla L; Weerasinghe, Gayani; Barajas, Marcela; Zem, Gregory; Oppenheimer, Steven B

    2002-01-01

    A novel assay has been developed for the histochemical characterization of surface properties of cells based on their adhesion to agarose beads derivatized with more than 100 types of molecules, including sugars, lectins and other proteins, and amino acids. The assay simply involves mixing small quantities of washed cells and beads in droplets on glass microscope slides and determining to which beads various cell types adhere. Distilled water was found to be the best medium for this assay because added ions or molecules in other media inhibit adhesion in some cases. Many cells, however, cannot tolerate distilled water. Here we show that cells fixed with either of two fixatives (1% formaldehyde or Prefer fixative) displayed similar bead-binding properties as did live cells. Specificity of cell-bead binding was tested by including specific free molecules in the test suspensions in hapten-type inhibition experiments. If a hapten compound inhibited live-cell adhesion to a specific bead, it also inhibited fixed-cell adhesion to a specific bead. The results of these experiments suggest that fixed cells display authentic surface properties, opening the door for the use of this assay with many cell types that cannot tolerate distilled water.

  6. Time series modeling of live-cell shape dynamics for image-based phenotypic profiling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gordonov, Simon; Hwang, Mun Kyung; Wells, Alan; Gertler, Frank B; Lauffenburger, Douglas A; Bathe, Mark

    2016-01-01

    Live-cell imaging can be used to capture spatio-temporal aspects of cellular responses that are not accessible to fixed-cell imaging. As the use of live-cell imaging continues to increase, new computational procedures are needed to characterize and classify the temporal dynamics of individual cells. For this purpose, here we present the general experimental-computational framework SAPHIRE (Stochastic Annotation of Phenotypic Individual-cell Responses) to characterize phenotypic cellular responses from time series imaging datasets. Hidden Markov modeling is used to infer and annotate morphological state and state-switching properties from image-derived cell shape measurements. Time series modeling is performed on each cell individually, making the approach broadly useful for analyzing asynchronous cell populations. Two-color fluorescent cells simultaneously expressing actin and nuclear reporters enabled us to profile temporal changes in cell shape following pharmacological inhibition of cytoskeleton-regulatory signaling pathways. Results are compared with existing approaches conventionally applied to fixed-cell imaging datasets, and indicate that time series modeling captures heterogeneous dynamic cellular responses that can improve drug classification and offer additional important insight into mechanisms of drug action. The software is available at http://saphire-hcs.org.

  7. Towards plasma surgery: interactions of cold plasmas with living cells paper (invited talk), Proceedings vol. 2. 1049-1052

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stoffels, E.; Kieft, I.E.; Sladek, R.E.J.; Laan, van der E.P.

    2004-01-01

    High-precision treatment of living tissues with a cold atmospheric plasma promises to become the "surgery of the future". Initial studies on plasma-cell interactions have revealed numerous therapeutically useful cell responses. In contrast to the conventional or laser surgery, plasma treatment does

  8. Central dogma at the single-molecule level in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Gene-Wei; Xie, X Sunney

    2011-07-20

    Gene expression originates from individual DNA molecules within living cells. Like many single-molecule processes, gene expression and regulation are stochastic, that is, sporadic in time. This leads to heterogeneity in the messenger-RNA and protein copy numbers in a population of cells with identical genomes. With advanced single-cell fluorescence microscopy, it is now possible to quantify transcriptomes and proteomes with single-molecule sensitivity. Dynamic processes such as transcription-factor binding, transcription and translation can be monitored in real time, providing quantitative descriptions of the central dogma of molecular biology and the demonstration that a stochastic single-molecule event can determine the phenotype of a cell.

  9. Visualization of the Nucleolus in Living Cells with Cell-Penetrating Fluorescent Peptides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martin, Robert M; Herce, Henry D; Ludwig, Anne K; Cardoso, M Cristina

    2016-01-01

    The nucleolus is the hallmark of nuclear compartmentalization and has been shown to exert multiple roles in cellular metabolism besides its main function as the place of ribosomal RNA synthesis and assembly of ribosomes. The nucleolus plays also a major role in nuclear organization as the largest compartment within the nucleus. The prominent structure of the nucleolus can be detected using contrast light microscopy providing an approximate localization of the nucleolus, but this approach does not allow to determine accurately the three-dimensional structure of the nucleolus in cells and tissues. Immunofluorescence staining with antibodies specific to nucleolar proteins albeit very useful is time consuming, normally antibodies recognize their epitopes only within a small range of species and is applicable only in fixed cells. Here, we present a simple method to selectively and accurately label this ubiquitous subnuclear compartment in living cells of a large range of species using a fluorescently labeled cell-penetrating peptide.

  10. A combined optical and atomic force microscope for live cell investigations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Madl, Josef; Rhode, Sebastian; Stangl, Herbert; Stockinger, Hannes; Hinterdorfer, Peter; Schuetz, Gerhard J.; Kada, Gerald

    2006-01-01

    We present an easy-to-use combination of an atomic force microscope (AFM) and an epi-fluorescence microscope, which allows live cell imaging under physiological conditions. High-resolution AFM images were acquired while simultaneously monitoring either the fluorescence image of labeled membrane components, or a high-contrast optical image (DIC, differential interference contrast). By applying two complementary techniques at the same time, additional information and correlations between structure and function of living organisms were obtained. The synergy effects between fluorescence imaging and AFM were further demonstrated by probing fluorescence-labeled receptor clusters in the cell membrane via force spectroscopy using antibody-functionalized tips. The binding probability on receptor-containing areas identified with fluorescence microscopy ('receptor-positive sites') was significantly higher than that on sites lacking receptors

  11. Skin vaccination with live virus vectored microneedle arrays induce long lived CD8(+) T cell memory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Becker, Pablo D; Hervouet, Catherine; Mason, Gavin M; Kwon, Sung-Yun; Klavinskis, Linda S

    2015-09-08

    A simple dissolvable microneedle array (MA) platform has emerged as a promising technology for vaccine delivery, due to needle-free injection with a formulation that preserves the immunogenicity of live viral vectored vaccines dried in the MA matrix. While recent studies have focused largely on design parameters optimized to induce primary CD8(+) T cell responses, the hallmark of a vaccine is synonymous with engendering long-lasting memory. Here, we address the capacity of dried MA vaccination to programme phenotypic markers indicative of effector/memory CD8(+) T cell subsets and also responsiveness to recall antigen benchmarked against conventional intradermal (ID) injection. We show that despite a slightly lower frequency of dividing T cell receptor transgenic CD8(+) T cells in secondary lymphoid tissue at an early time point, the absolute number of CD8(+) T cells expressing an effector memory (CD62L(-)CD127(+)) and central memory (CD62L(+)CD127(+)) phenotype during peak expansion were comparable after MA and ID vaccination with a recombinant human adenovirus type 5 vector (AdHu5) encoding HIV-1 gag. Similarly, both vaccination routes generated CD8(+) memory T cell subsets detected in draining LNs for at least two years post-vaccination capable of responding to secondary antigen. These data suggest that CD8(+) T cell effector/memory generation and long-term memory is largely unaffected by physical differences in vaccine delivery to the skin via dried MA or ID suspension. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  12. Raman microscopy of individual living human embryonic stem cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Novikov, S. M.; Beermann, J.; Bozhevolnyi, S. I.; Harkness, L. M.; Kassem, M.

    2010-04-01

    We demonstrate the possibility of mapping the distribution of different biomolecules in living human embryonic stem cells grown on glass substrates, without the need for fluorescent markers. In our work we improve the quality of measurements by finding a buffer that gives low fluorescence, growing cells on glass substrates (whose Raman signals are relatively weak compared to that of the cells) and having the backside covered with gold to improve the image contrast under direct white light illumination. The experimental setup used for Raman microscopy is the commercially available confocal scanning Raman microscope (Alpha300R) from Witec and sub-μm spatially resolved Raman images were obtained using a 532 nm excitation wavelength.

  13. Visualization and measurement of ATP levels in living cells replicating hepatitis C virus genome RNA.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomomi Ando

    Full Text Available Adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP is the primary energy currency of all living organisms and participates in a variety of cellular processes. Although ATP requirements during viral lifecycles have been examined in a number of studies, a method by which ATP production can be monitored in real-time, and by which ATP can be quantified in individual cells and subcellular compartments, is lacking, thereby hindering studies aimed at elucidating the precise mechanisms by which viral replication energized by ATP is controlled. In this study, we investigated the fluctuation and distribution of ATP in cells during RNA replication of the hepatitis C virus (HCV, a member of the Flaviviridae family. We demonstrated that cells involved in viral RNA replication actively consumed ATP, thereby reducing cytoplasmic ATP levels. Subsequently, a method to measure ATP levels at putative subcellular sites of HCV RNA replication in living cells was developed by introducing a recently-established Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET-based ATP indicator, called ATeam, into the NS5A coding region of the HCV replicon. Using this method, we were able to observe the formation of ATP-enriched dot-like structures, which co-localize with non-structural viral proteins, within the cytoplasm of HCV-replicating cells but not in non-replicating cells. The obtained FRET signals allowed us to estimate ATP concentrations within HCV replicating cells as ∼5 mM at possible replicating sites and ∼1 mM at peripheral sites that did not appear to be involved in HCV replication. In contrast, cytoplasmic ATP levels in non-replicating Huh-7 cells were estimated as ∼2 mM. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate changes in ATP concentration within cells during replication of the HCV genome and increased ATP levels at distinct sites within replicating cells. ATeam may be a powerful tool for the study of energy metabolism during replication of the viral genome.

  14. Biosorption of diethyl phthalate ester by living and nonliving Burkholderia cepacia and the role of its cell surface components.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Si; Li, Langlang; Chen, Anwei; Zeng, Qingru; Xia, Hao; Gu, Ji-Dong

    2017-07-01

    In this study, the dibutyl phthalate (DBP) binding properties of a DBP-tolerant bacterium (B. cepacia) were characterized in terms of adsorption kinetics and isotherm. Living and nonliving cells both exhibited rapid removal of DBP, achieving more than 80% of maximum sorption within 30 min of contact and reached the equilibrium after 3 h. The adsorption isotherms were well fitted with the Sips model and the nonliving cells have greater biosorption capacity and affinity for DBP than the living cells. Furthermore, the absence of an active mechanism dependent on metabolism implied that the DBP bioaccumulation by living cells was mainly attribute to passive surface binding. The optimum pH for DBP adsorption by living and nonliving cells were both observed to be 6.0. The biosorptive mechanism of DBP binding by B. cepacia was further confirmed by FTIR analysis and various chemical treatments. FTIR results indicated that the phosphate and CH 2 groups on B. cepacia were the main bounding sites for DBP. Furthermore, 2.28, 2.15, 1.93 and 0.87 g of pretreated cells were obtained from 2.40 g of native cells via extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), superficial layer-capsule, lipids components and cell membrane removal treatments, respectively. Total binding amount of DBP on the native cells, EPS-removed cells, capsule-removed cells, lipids-extracted cells and membrane-removed cells were 26.69, 24.84, 24.93, 16.11 and 10.80 mg, respectively, suggesting that the cell wall lipids, proteins or peptidoglycan might play important roles in the sorption of DBP by B. cepacia. The information could be applied in understanding on the mobility, transport and ultimate fate of PAEs in soil and related environment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Lives of a Cell: 40 Years Later, A Third Interpretation

    Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Podcasts

    2015-06-16

    Reginald Tucker reads an abridged version of the article Lives of a Cell: 40 Years Later, A Third Interpretation.  Created: 6/16/2015 by National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID).   Date Released: 6/18/2015.

  16. Live cell CRISPR-imaging in plants reveals dynamic telomere movements

    KAUST Repository

    Dreissig, Steven; Schiml, Simon; Schindele, Patrick; Weiss, Oda; Rutten, Twan; Schubert, Veit; Gladilin, Evgeny; Mette, Michael F.; Puchta, Holger; Houben, Andreas

    2017-01-01

    of the bacterial CRISPR-Cas9 system. By fusing eGFP/mRuby2 to the catalytically inactive version of Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus Cas9, we show robust visualization of telomere repeats in live leaf cells of Nicotiana benthamiana. By tracking

  17. Magnetogenetic control of protein gradients inside living cells with high spatial and temporal resolution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Etoc, Fred; Vicario, Chiara; Lisse, Domenik; Siaugue, Jean-Michel; Piehler, Jacob; Coppey, Mathieu; Dahan, Maxime

    2015-05-13

    Tools for controlling the spatial organization of proteins are a major prerequisite for deciphering mechanisms governing the dynamic architecture of living cells. Here, we have developed a generic approach for inducing and maintaining protein gradients inside living cells by means of biofunctionalized magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). For this purpose, we tailored the size and surface properties of MNPs in order to ensure unhindered mobility in the cytosol. These MNPs with a core diameter below 50 nm could be rapidly relocalized in living cells by exploiting biased diffusion at weak magnetic forces in the femto-Newton range. In combination with MNP surface functionalization for specific in situ capturing of target proteins as well as efficient delivery into the cytosplasm, we here present a comprehensive technology for controlling intracellular protein gradients with a temporal resolution of a few tens of seconds.

  18. Fungicidal mechanisms of cathelicidins LL-37 and CATH-2 revealed by live-cell imaging

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ordonez Alvarez, Soledad; Amarullah, Ilham H; Wubbolts, Richard W; Veldhuizen, Edwin J A; Haagsman, Henk P

    2014-01-01

    Antifungal mechanisms of action of two cathelicidins, chicken CATH-2 and human LL-37, were studied and compared with the mode of action of the salivary peptide histatin 5 (Hst5). Candida albicans was used as a model organism for fungal pathogens. Analysis by live-cell imaging showed that the

  19. Engineering Multifunctional Living Paints: Thin, Convectively-Assembled Biocomposite Coatings of Live Cells and Colloidal Latex Particles Deposited by Continuous Convective-Sedimentation Assembly

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jenkins, Jessica Shawn

    Advanced composite materials could be revolutionized by the development of methods to incorporate living cells into functional materials and devices. This could be accomplished by continuously and rapidly depositing thin ordered arrays of adhesive colloidal latex particles and live cells that maintain stability and preserve microbial reactivity. Convective assembly is one method of rapidly assembling colloidal particles into thin (advantages over thicker randomly ordered composites, including enhanced cell stability and increased reactivity through minimized diffusion resistance to nutrients and reduced light scattering. This method can be used to precisely deposit live bacteria, cyanobacteria, yeast, and algae into biocomposite coatings, forming reactive biosensors, photoabsorbers, or advanced biocatalysts. This dissertation developed new continuous deposition and coating characterization methods for fabricating and characterizing 90 hours) photohydrogen production under anoxygenic conditions. Nutrient reduction slows cell division, minimizing coating outgrowth, and promotes photohydrogen generation, improving coating reactivity. Scanning electron microscopy of microstructure revealed how coating reactivity can be controlled by the size and distribution of the nanopores in the biocomposite layers. Variations in colloid microsphere size and suspension composition do not affect coating reactivity, but both parameters alter coating microstructure. Porous paper coated with thin coatings of colloidal particles and cells to enable coatings to be used in a gas-phase without dehydration may offer higher volumetric productivity for hydrogen production. Future work should focus on optimization of cell density, light intensity, media cycling, and acetate concentration.

  20. Vibrational imaging of newly synthesized proteins in live cells by stimulated Raman scattering microscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Lu; Yu, Yong; Shen, Yihui; Wang, Meng C.; Min, Wei

    2013-01-01

    Synthesis of new proteins, a key step in the central dogma of molecular biology, has been a major biological process by which cells respond rapidly to environmental cues in both physiological and pathological conditions. However, the selective visualization of a newly synthesized proteome in living systems with subcellular resolution has proven to be rather challenging, despite the extensive efforts along the lines of fluorescence staining, autoradiography, and mass spectrometry. Herein, we report an imaging technique to visualize nascent proteins by harnessing the emerging stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy coupled with metabolic incorporation of deuterium-labeled amino acids. As a first demonstration, we imaged newly synthesized proteins in live mammalian cells with high spatial–temporal resolution without fixation or staining. Subcellular compartments with fast protein turnover in HeLa and HEK293T cells, and newly grown neurites in differentiating neuron-like N2A cells, are clearly identified via this imaging technique. Technically, incorporation of deuterium-labeled amino acids is minimally perturbative to live cells, whereas SRS imaging of exogenous carbon–deuterium bonds (C–D) in the cell-silent Raman region is highly sensitive, specific, and compatible with living systems. Moreover, coupled with label-free SRS imaging of the total proteome, our method can readily generate spatial maps of the quantitative ratio between new and total proteomes. Thus, this technique of nonlinear vibrational imaging of stable isotope incorporation will be a valuable tool to advance our understanding of the complex spatial and temporal dynamics of newly synthesized proteome in vivo. PMID:23798434

  1. A micro-Raman study of live, single red blood cells (RBCs treated with AgNO3 nanoparticles.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aseefhali Bankapur

    Full Text Available Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs are known to exhibit broad antimicrobial activity. However, such activity continues to raise concerns in the context of the interaction of such NPs with biomolecules. In a physiological environment NPs interact with individual biological cells either by penetrating through the cell membrane or by adhering to the membrane. We have explored the interaction of Ag NPs with single optically-trapped, live erythrocytes (red blood cells, RBCs using Raman Tweezers spectroscopy. Our experiments reveal that Ag NPs induce modifications within an RBC that appear to be irreversible. In particular we are able to identify that the heme conformation in an RBC transforms from the usual R-state (oxy-state to the T-state (deoxy-state. We rationalize our observations by proposing a model for the nanoparticle cytotoxicity pathway when the NP size is larger than the membrane pore size. We propose that the interaction of Ag NPs with the cell surface induces damage brought about by alteration of intracellular pH caused by the blockage of the cell membrane transport.

  2. Development of a surface plasmon resonance biosensor for real-time detection of osteogenic differentiation in live mesenchymal stem cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi-Chun Kuo

    Full Text Available Surface plasmon resonance (SPR biosensors have been recognized as a useful tool and widely used for real-time dynamic analysis of molecular binding affinity because of its high sensitivity to the change of the refractive index of tested objects. The conventional methods in molecular biology to evaluate cell differentiation require cell lysis or fixation, which make investigation in live cells difficult. In addition, a certain amount of cells are needed in order to obtain adequate protein or messenger ribonucleic acid for various assays. To overcome this limitation, we developed a unique SPR-based biosensing apparatus for real-time detection of cell differentiation in live cells according to the differences of optical properties of the cell surface caused by specific antigen-antibody binding. In this study, we reported the application of this SPR-based system to evaluate the osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs. OB-cadherin expression, which is up-regulated during osteogenic differentiation, was targeted under our SPR system by conjugating antibodies against OB-cadherin on the surface of the object. A linear relationship between the duration of osteogenic induction and the difference in refractive angle shift with very high correlation coefficient was observed. To sum up, the SPR system and the protocol reported in this study can rapidly and accurately define osteogenic maturation of MSCs in a live cell and label-free manner with no need of cell breakage. This SPR biosensor will facilitate future advances in a vast array of fields in biomedical research and medical diagnosis.

  3. Fluorescent water-Soluble Probes Based on Ammonium Cation Peg Substituted Perylenepisimides: Synthesis, Photophysical Properties, and Live Cell Images

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Wei; Cai, Jiaxuan; Zhang, Shuchen; Yi, Xuegang; Gao, Baoxiang

    2018-01-01

    To synthesize perylenbisimides (PBI) fluorescent probes that will improve the water-soluble ability and the cytocompatibility, the synthesis and properties of fluorescent water-soluble probes based on dendritic ammonium cation polyethylene glycol (PEG) substituted perylenebisimides(GPDIs) are presented. As we expected, with increased ammonium cation PEG, the aggregation of the PBI in an aqueous solution is completely suppressed by the hydrophilic ammonium cation PEG groups. And the fluorescence quantum yield increases from 25% for GPDI-1 to 62% for GPDI-2. When incubated with Hela cells for 48 h, the viabilities are 71% (for GPDI-1) and 76% (for GPDI-2). Live cell imaging shows that these probes are efficiently internalized by HeLa cells. The study of the photophysical properties indicated increasing the ammonium cation PEG generation can increase the fluorescence quantum yield. Live cell imaging shows that with the ammonium cation PEG chains of perylenebisimides has high biocompatibility. The exceptionally low cytotoxicity is ascribed to the ammonium cation PEG chains, which protect the dyes from nonspecifically interacting with the extracellular proteins. Live cell imaging shows that ammonium cations PEG chains can promote the internalization of these probes.

  4. Meaningful interpretation of subdiffusive measurements in living cells (crowded environment) by fluorescence fluctuation microscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baumann, Gerd; Place, Robert F; Földes-Papp, Zeno

    2010-08-01

    (temporal) randomness in cellular systems.We have already derived an analytical solution gamma for in the special case of gamma = 3/2. In the case of two-color crosscorrelation or/and two-color fluorescence imaging (co-localization experiments), the second component is also a two-color species gr, for example a different molecular complex with an additional ligand. Here, we first show that plausible biological mechanisms from FCS/ FCCS and fluorescence imaging in living cells are highly questionable without proper quantitative physical models of subdiffusive motion and temporal randomness. At best, such quantitative FCS/ FCCS and fluorescence imaging data are difficult to interpret under crowding and heterogeneous conditions. It is challenging to translate proper physical models of anomalous (spatial) and heterogeneous (temporal) randomness in living cells and their cellular compartments like the nucleus into biological models of the cell biological process under study testable by single-molecule approaches. Otherwise, quantitative FCS/FCCS and fluorescence imaging measurements in living cells are not well described and cannot be interpreted in a meaningful way.

  5. Dual photon excitation microscopy and image threshold segmentation in live cell imaging during compression testing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moo, Eng Kuan; Abusara, Ziad; Abu Osman, Noor Azuan; Pingguan-Murphy, Belinda; Herzog, Walter

    2013-08-09

    Morphological studies of live connective tissue cells are imperative to helping understand cellular responses to mechanical stimuli. However, photobleaching is a constant problem to accurate and reliable live cell fluorescent imaging, and various image thresholding methods have been adopted to account for photobleaching effects. Previous studies showed that dual photon excitation (DPE) techniques are superior over conventional one photon excitation (OPE) confocal techniques in minimizing photobleaching. In this study, we investigated the effects of photobleaching resulting from OPE and DPE on morphology of in situ articular cartilage chondrocytes across repeat laser exposures. Additionally, we compared the effectiveness of three commonly-used image thresholding methods in accounting for photobleaching effects, with and without tissue loading through compression. In general, photobleaching leads to an apparent volume reduction for subsequent image scans. Performing seven consecutive scans of chondrocytes in unloaded cartilage, we found that the apparent cell volume loss caused by DPE microscopy is much smaller than that observed using OPE microscopy. Applying scan-specific image thresholds did not prevent the photobleaching-induced volume loss, and volume reductions were non-uniform over the seven repeat scans. During cartilage loading through compression, cell fluorescence increased and, depending on the thresholding method used, led to different volume changes. Therefore, different conclusions on cell volume changes may be drawn during tissue compression, depending on the image thresholding methods used. In conclusion, our findings confirm that photobleaching directly affects cell morphology measurements, and that DPE causes less photobleaching artifacts than OPE for uncompressed cells. When cells are compressed during tissue loading, a complicated interplay between photobleaching effects and compression-induced fluorescence increase may lead to interpretations in

  6. Hemi-fused structure mediates and controls fusion and fission in live cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Wei-Dong; Hamid, Edaeni; Shin, Wonchul; Wen, Peter J; Krystofiak, Evan S; Villarreal, Seth A; Chiang, Hsueh-Cheng; Kachar, Bechara; Wu, Ling-Gang

    2016-06-23

    Membrane fusion and fission are vital for eukaryotic life. For three decades, it has been proposed that fusion is mediated by fusion between the proximal leaflets of two bilayers (hemi-fusion) to produce a hemi-fused structure, followed by fusion between the distal leaflets, whereas fission is via hemi-fission, which also produces a hemi-fused structure, followed by full fission. This hypothesis remained unsupported owing to the lack of observation of hemi-fusion or hemi-fission in live cells. A competing fusion hypothesis involving protein-lined pore formation has also been proposed. Here we report the observation of a hemi-fused Ω-shaped structure in live neuroendocrine chromaffin cells and pancreatic β-cells, visualized using confocal and super-resolution stimulated emission depletion microscopy. This structure is generated from fusion pore opening or closure (fission) at the plasma membrane. Unexpectedly, the transition to full fusion or fission is determined by competition between fusion and calcium/dynamin-dependent fission mechanisms, and is notably slow (seconds to tens of seconds) in a substantial fraction of the events. These results provide key missing evidence in support of the hemi-fusion and hemi-fission hypothesis in live cells, and reveal the hemi-fused intermediate as a key structure controlling fusion and fission, as fusion and fission mechanisms compete to determine the transition to fusion or fission.

  7. Long-lived radicals produced by γ-irradiation or vital activity in plants, animals, cells, and protein solution: their observation and inhomogeneous decay dynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miyazaki, Tetsuo; Morikawa, Akiyuki; Kumagai, Jun; Ikehata, Masateru; Koana, Takao; Kikuchi, Shoshi

    2002-01-01

    Long-lived radicals produced by γ-irradiation or vital activity in plants, animals, cells, and protein (albumin) solution were studied by electron spin resonance spectroscopy. Long-lived radicals produced by vital activity exist in biological systems, such as plants, animals, and cells, in the range of 0.1-20 nmol g -1 . Since vital organs keep the radicals at a constant concentration, the radicals are probably related to life conservation. Long-lived radicals are also produced by γ-irradiation of cells or protein solution. The radicals decay after death of living things or after γ-irradiation. We found that the decay dynamics in all biological systems can be expressed by the same kinetic equation of an inhomogeneous reaction

  8. Multifocus confocal Raman microspectroscopy for fast multimode vibrational imaging of living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okuno, Masanari; Hamaguchi, Hiro-o

    2010-12-15

    We have developed a multifocus confocal Raman microspectroscopic system for the fast multimode vibrational imaging of living cells. It consists of an inverted microscope equipped with a microlens array, a pinhole array, a fiber bundle, and a multichannel Raman spectrometer. Forty-eight Raman spectra from 48 foci under the microscope are simultaneously obtained by using multifocus excitation and image-compression techniques. The multifocus confocal configuration suppresses the background generated from the cover glass and the cell culturing medium so that high-contrast images are obtainable with a short accumulation time. The system enables us to obtain multimode (10 different vibrational modes) vibrational images of living cells in tens of seconds with only 1 mW laser power at one focal point. This image acquisition time is more than 10 times faster than that in conventional single-focus Raman microspectroscopy.

  9. Nanochannel Electroporation as a Platform for Living Cell Interrogation in Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhao, Xi; Huang, Xiaomeng; Wang, Xinmei; Wu, Yun; Eisfeld, Ann-Kathrin; Schwind, Sebastian; Gallego-Perez, Daniel; Boukany, Pouyan E; Marcucci, Guido I; Lee, Ly James

    2015-12-01

    A living cell interrogation platform based on nanochannel electroporation is demonstrated with analysis of RNAs in single cells. This minimally invasive process is based on individual cells and allows both multi-target analysis and stimulus-response analysis by sequential deliveries. The unique platform possesses a great potential to the comprehensive and lysis-free nucleic acid analysis on rare or hard-to-transfect cells.

  10. Developing new optical imaging techniques for single particle and molecule tracking in live cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sun, Wei [Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)

    2010-01-01

    Differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy is a far-field as well as wide-field optical imaging technique. Since it is non-invasive and requires no sample staining, DIC microscopy is suitable for tracking the motion of target molecules in live cells without interfering their functions. In addition, high numerical aperture objectives and condensers can be used in DIC microscopy. The depth of focus of DIC is shallow, which gives DIC much better optical sectioning ability than those of phase contrast and dark field microscopies. In this work, DIC was utilized to study dynamic biological processes including endocytosis and intracellular transport in live cells. The suitability of DIC microscopy for single particle tracking in live cells was first demonstrated by using DIC to monitor the entire endocytosis process of one mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN) into a live mammalian cell. By taking advantage of the optical sectioning ability of DIC, we recorded the depth profile of the MSN during the endocytosis process. The shape change around the nanoparticle due to the formation of a vesicle was also captured. DIC microscopy was further modified that the sample can be illuminated and imaged at two wavelengths simultaneously. By using the new technique, noble metal nanoparticles with different shapes and sizes were selectively imaged. Among all the examined metal nanoparticles, gold nanoparticles in rod shapes were found to be especially useful. Due to their anisotropic optical properties, gold nanorods showed as diffraction-limited spots with disproportionate bright and dark parts that are strongly dependent on their orientation in the 3D space. Gold nanorods were developed as orientation nanoprobes and were successfully used to report the self-rotation of gliding microtubules on kinesin coated substrates. Gold nanorods were further used to study the rotational motions of cargoes during the endocytosis and intracellular transport processes in live mammalian

  11. From Never Born Proteins to Minimal Living Cells: two projects in synthetic biology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luisi, Pier Luigi; Chiarabelli, Cristiano; Stano, Pasquale

    2006-12-01

    The Never Born Proteins (NBPs) and the Minimal Cell projects are two currently developed research lines belonging to the field of synthetic biology. The first deals with the investigation of structural and functional properties of de novo proteins with random sequences, selected and isolated using phage display methods. The minimal cell is the simplest cellular construct which displays living properties, such as self-maintenance, self-reproduction and evolvability. The semi-synthetic approach to minimal cells involves the use of extant genes and proteins in order to build a supramolecular construct based on lipid vesicles. Results and outlooks on these two research lines are shortly discussed, mainly focusing on their relevance to the origin of life studies.

  12. Labeling proteins on live mammalian cells using click chemistry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nikić, Ivana; Kang, Jun Hee; Girona, Gemma Estrada; Aramburu, Iker Valle; Lemke, Edward A

    2015-05-01

    We describe a protocol for the rapid labeling of cell-surface proteins in living mammalian cells using click chemistry. The labeling method is based on strain-promoted alkyne-azide cycloaddition (SPAAC) and strain-promoted inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder cycloaddition (SPIEDAC) reactions, in which noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) bearing ring-strained alkynes or alkenes react, respectively, with dyes containing azide or tetrazine groups. To introduce ncAAs site specifically into a protein of interest (POI), we use genetic code expansion technology. The protocol can be described as comprising two steps. In the first step, an Amber stop codon is introduced--by site-directed mutagenesis--at the desired site on the gene encoding the POI. This plasmid is then transfected into mammalian cells, along with another plasmid that encodes an aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA (RS/tRNA) pair that is orthogonal to the host's translational machinery. In the presence of the ncAA, the orthogonal RS/tRNA pair specifically suppresses the Amber codon by incorporating the ncAA into the polypeptide chain of the POI. In the second step, the expressed POI is labeled with a suitably reactive dye derivative that is directly supplied to the growth medium. We provide a detailed protocol for using commercially available ncAAs and dyes for labeling the insulin receptor, and we discuss the optimal surface-labeling conditions and the limitations of labeling living mammalian cells. The protocol involves an initial cloning step that can take 4-7 d, followed by the described transfections and labeling reaction steps, which can take 3-4 d.

  13. DESIGN, SYNTHESIS, AND APPLICATION OF THE TRIMETHOPRIM-BASED CHEMICAL TAG FOR LIVE CELL IMAGING

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jing, Chaoran; Cornish, Virginia W.

    2013-01-01

    Over the past decade chemical tags have been developed to complement the use of fluorescent proteins in live cell imaging. Chemical tags retain the specificity of protein labeling achieved with fluorescent proteins through genetic encoding, but provide smaller, more robust tags and modular use of organic fluorophores with high photon-output and tailored functionalities. The trimethoprim-based chemical tag (TMP-tag) was initially developed based on the high affinity interaction between E.coli dihydrofolatereductase and the antibiotic trimethoprim and subsequently rendered covalent and fluorogenic via proximity-induced protein labeling reactions. To date, the TMP-tag is one of the few chemical tags that enable intracellular protein labeling and high-resolution live cell imaging. Here we describe the general design, chemical synthesis, and application of TMP-tag for live cell imaging. Alternative protocols for synthesizing and using the covalent and the fluorogenic TMP-tags are also included. PMID:23839994

  14. A combined optical and atomic force microscope for live cell investigations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Madl, Josef [Institute for Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstr. 69, 4040 Linz (Austria); Rhode, Sebastian [Institute for Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstr. 69, 4040 Linz (Austria); Stangl, Herbert [Institute for Medical Chemistry, Medical University Vienna, Waehringerstr. 10, 1090 Vienna (Austria); Stockinger, Hannes [Department of Molecular Immunology, Center for Biomolecular Medicine and Pharmacology, Medical University Vienna, Lazarettgasse 19, 1090 Vienna (Austria); Hinterdorfer, Peter [Institute for Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstr. 69, 4040 Linz (Austria); Schuetz, Gerhard J. [Institute for Biophysics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Altenbergerstr. 69, 4040 Linz (Austria); Kada, Gerald [Scientec, Mitterbauerweg 4, 4020 Linz (Austria)]. E-mail: gerald_kada@agilent.com

    2006-06-15

    We present an easy-to-use combination of an atomic force microscope (AFM) and an epi-fluorescence microscope, which allows live cell imaging under physiological conditions. High-resolution AFM images were acquired while simultaneously monitoring either the fluorescence image of labeled membrane components, or a high-contrast optical image (DIC, differential interference contrast). By applying two complementary techniques at the same time, additional information and correlations between structure and function of living organisms were obtained. The synergy effects between fluorescence imaging and AFM were further demonstrated by probing fluorescence-labeled receptor clusters in the cell membrane via force spectroscopy using antibody-functionalized tips. The binding probability on receptor-containing areas identified with fluorescence microscopy ('receptor-positive sites') was significantly higher than that on sites lacking receptors.

  15. A nucleic acid dependent chemical photocatalysis in live human cells

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Arian, Dumitru; Cló, Emiliano; Gothelf, Kurt V

    2010-01-01

    Only two nucleic acid directed chemical reactions that are compatible with live cells have been reported to date. Neither of these processes generate toxic species from nontoxic starting materials. Reactions of the latter type could be applied as gene-specific drugs, for example, in the treatment...

  16. Applications of chitosan-based thermo-sensitive copolymers for harvesting living cell sheet

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chen, J.-P.; Yang, T.-F.

    2008-01-01

    A thermo-sensitive chitosan-based copolymer hydrogel was used for harvesting living cell sheets. The hydrogel was tested for harvesting 3T3 cells after carrying out cell culture at 37 deg. C and incubating the confluent cells at 20 deg. C for spontaneous detachment of cell sheets from hydrogel surface without enzyme treatment. Results from cell viability assay and microscopy observations demonstrated that cells could attach to the hydrogel surface and maintain high viability and proliferation ability. Cell detachment efficiency from the hydrogel was about 80%. The detached cell sheet retained high viability and could proliferate again after transferred to a new culture surface

  17. Sickle cell anaemia and the experiences of young people living with the condition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Foster, Nicole; Ellis, Michelle

    2018-04-26

    Sickle cell anaemia (SCA) is a life-threatening haemoglobin disorder acknowledged for its unpredictability and painful episodes. The aim of this qualitative literature review was to explore the experiences of young people living with SCA and its effect on their lives. The objective was to critically review selected primary research and make recommendations for practice, education and research. After reviewing potential articles using EBSCOhost, inclusion and exclusion criteria were devised and six appropriate studies were found with most participants in the 10-25 years age range. These studies were conducted in the UK and the United States. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme qualitative research checklist was used to evaluate the articles. Thematic analysis identified three themes: acceptance, support and unpredictability, with sub-themes of spirituality and discrimination. It was clear that SCA affected multiple areas of young people's lives. Recommendations are made for practice, education and research. © 2018 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers.

  18. Quantitative control of mitochondria transfer between live single cells using a microfluidic device

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ken-Ichi Wada

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Quantitative control of mitochondria transfer between live cells is a promising approach for genetic manipulation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA because single mitochondrion transfer to a mtDNA-less (ρ0 cell potentially leads to homoplasmy of mtDNA. In this paper, we describe a method for quantitative control of mitochondria transfer between live single cells. For this purpose, we fabricated novel microfluidic devices having cell paring structures with a 4.1, 5.6 or 10.0 μm-length microtunnel. When cells were fused through a microtunnel using the Sendai virus envelope-based method, a strictured cytoplasmic connection was achieved with a length corresponding to that of the microtunnel. Elongation of the cytoplasmic connection led to a decrease in mitochondria transfer to the fusion partner. Moreover, some cell pairs that fused through a 10.0 μm-length microtunnel showed single mitochondrion transfer. Fused cells were spontaneously disconnected from each other when they were recovered in a normal culture medium. These results suggest that our cell fusion method can perform quantitative control of mitochondria transfer that includes a single mitochondrion transfer.

  19. A device for real-time live-cell microscopy during dynamic dual-modal mechanostimulation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lorusso, D.; Nikolov, H. N.; Chmiel, T.; Beach, R. J.; Sims, S. M.; Dixon, S. J.; Holdsworth, D. W.

    2017-03-01

    Mechanotransduction - the process by which cells sense and respond to mechanical stimuli - is essential for several physiological processes including skeletal homeostasis. Mammalian cells are thought to be sensitive to different modes of mechanical stimuli, including vibration and fluid shear. To better understand the mechanisms underlying the early stages of mechanotransduction, we describe the development of devices for mechanostimulation (by vibration and fluid shear) of live cells that can be integrated with real-time optical microscopy. The integrated system can deliver up to 3 Pa of fluid shear simultaneous with high-frequency sinusoidal vibrations up to 1 g. Stimuli can be applied simultaneously or independently to cells during real-time microscopic imaging. A custom microfluidic chamber was prepared from polydimethylsiloxane on a glass-bottom cell culture dish. Fluid flow was applied with a syringe pump to induce shear stress. This device is compatible with a custom-designed motion control vibration system. A voice coil actuates the system that is suspended on linear air bushings. Accelerations produced by the system were monitored with an on-board accelerometer. Displacement was validated optically using particle tracking digital high-speed imaging (1200 frames per second). During operation at nominally 45 Hz and 0.3 g, displacements were observed to be within 3.56% of the expected value. MC3T3-E1 osteoblast like cells were seeded into the microfluidic device and loaded with the calcium sensitive fluorescent probe fura-2, then mounted onto the dual-modal mechanostimulation platform. Cells were then imaged and monitored for fluorescence emission. In summary, we have developed a system to deliver physiologically relevant vibrations and fluid shear to live cells during real-time imaging and photometry. Monitoring the behavior of live cells loaded with appropriate fluorescent probes will enable characterization of the signals activated during the initial

  20. Fluorescent tags of protein function in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whitaker, M

    2000-02-01

    A cell's biochemistry is now known to be the biochemistry of molecular machines, that is, protein complexes that are assembled and dismantled in particular locations within the cell as needed. One important element in our understanding has been the ability to begin to see where proteins are in cells and what they are doing as they go about their business. Accordingly, there is now a strong impetus to discover new ways of looking at the workings of proteins in living cells. Although the use of fluorescent tags to track individual proteins in cells has a long history, the availability of laser-based confocal microscopes and the imaginative exploitation of the green fluorescent protein from jellyfish have provided new tools of great diversity and utility. It is now possible to watch a protein bind its substrate or its partners in real time and with submicron resolution within a single cell. The importance of processes of self-organisation represented by protein folding on the one hand and subcellular organelles on the other are well recognised. Self-organisation at the intermediate level of multimeric protein complexes is now open to inspection. BioEssays 22:180-187, 2000. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

  1. Automated analysis of invadopodia dynamics in live cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matthew E. Berginski

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Multiple cell types form specialized protein complexes that are used by the cell to actively degrade the surrounding extracellular matrix. These structures are called podosomes or invadopodia and collectively referred to as invadosomes. Due to their potential importance in both healthy physiology as well as in pathological conditions such as cancer, the characterization of these structures has been of increasing interest. Following early descriptions of invadopodia, assays were developed which labelled the matrix underneath metastatic cancer cells allowing for the assessment of invadopodia activity in motile cells. However, characterization of invadopodia using these methods has traditionally been done manually with time-consuming and potentially biased quantification methods, limiting the number of experiments and the quantity of data that can be analysed. We have developed a system to automate the segmentation, tracking and quantification of invadopodia in time-lapse fluorescence image sets at both the single invadopodia level and whole cell level. We rigorously tested the ability of the method to detect changes in invadopodia formation and dynamics through the use of well-characterized small molecule inhibitors, with known effects on invadopodia. Our results demonstrate the ability of this analysis method to quantify changes in invadopodia formation from live cell imaging data in a high throughput, automated manner.

  2. Nanomembrane-Based, Thermal-Transport Biosensor for Living Cells

    KAUST Repository

    Elafandy, Rami T.; AbuElela, Ayman; Mishra, Pawan; Janjua, Bilal; Oubei, Hassan M.; Buttner, Ulrich; Majid, Mohammed Abdul; Ng, Tien Khee; Merzaban, Jasmeen; Ooi, Boon S.

    2016-01-01

    Knowledge of materials' thermal-transport properties, conductivity and diffusivity, is crucial for several applications within areas of biology, material science and engineering. Specifically, a microsized, flexible, biologically integrated thermal transport sensor is beneficial to a plethora of applications, ranging across plants physiological ecology and thermal imaging and treatment of cancerous cells, to thermal dissipation in flexible semiconductors and thermoelectrics. Living cells pose extra challenges, due to their small volumes and irregular curvilinear shapes. Here a novel approach of simultaneously measuring thermal conductivity and diffusivity of different materials and its applicability to single cells is demonstrated. This technique is based on increasing phonon-boundary-scattering rate in nanomembranes, having extremely low flexural rigidities, to induce a considerable spectral dependence of the bandgap-emission over excitation-laser intensity. It is demonstrated that once in contact with organic or inorganic materials, the nanomembranes' emission spectrally shift based on the material's thermal diffusivity and conductivity. This NM-based technique is further applied to differentiate between different types and subtypes of cancer cells, based on their thermal-transport properties. It is anticipated that this novel technique to enable an efficient single-cell thermal targeting, allow better modeling of cellular thermal distribution and enable novel diagnostic techniques based on variations of single-cell thermal-transport properties.

  3. Nanomembrane-Based, Thermal-Transport Biosensor for Living Cells

    KAUST Repository

    Elafandy, Rami T.

    2016-11-23

    Knowledge of materials\\' thermal-transport properties, conductivity and diffusivity, is crucial for several applications within areas of biology, material science and engineering. Specifically, a microsized, flexible, biologically integrated thermal transport sensor is beneficial to a plethora of applications, ranging across plants physiological ecology and thermal imaging and treatment of cancerous cells, to thermal dissipation in flexible semiconductors and thermoelectrics. Living cells pose extra challenges, due to their small volumes and irregular curvilinear shapes. Here a novel approach of simultaneously measuring thermal conductivity and diffusivity of different materials and its applicability to single cells is demonstrated. This technique is based on increasing phonon-boundary-scattering rate in nanomembranes, having extremely low flexural rigidities, to induce a considerable spectral dependence of the bandgap-emission over excitation-laser intensity. It is demonstrated that once in contact with organic or inorganic materials, the nanomembranes\\' emission spectrally shift based on the material\\'s thermal diffusivity and conductivity. This NM-based technique is further applied to differentiate between different types and subtypes of cancer cells, based on their thermal-transport properties. It is anticipated that this novel technique to enable an efficient single-cell thermal targeting, allow better modeling of cellular thermal distribution and enable novel diagnostic techniques based on variations of single-cell thermal-transport properties.

  4. Aptamer-mediated indirect quantum dot labeling and fluorescent imaging of target proteins in living cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, Jianbo; Zhang, Pengfei; Yang, Xiaohai; Wang, Kemin; Guo, Qiuping; Huang, Jin; Li, Wei

    2014-01-01

    Protein labeling for dynamic living cell imaging plays a significant role in basic biological research, as well as in clinical diagnostics and therapeutics. We have developed a novel strategy in which the dynamic visualization of proteins within living cells is achieved by using aptamers as mediators for indirect protein labeling of quantum dots (QDs). With this strategy, the target protein angiogenin was successfully labeled with fluorescent QDs in a minor intactness model, which was mediated by the aptamer AL6-B. Subsequent living cell imaging analyses indicated that the QDs nanoprobes were selectively bound to human umbilical vein endothelial cells, gradually internalized into the cytoplasm, and mostly localized in the lysosome organelle, indicating that the labeled protein retained high activity. Compared with traditional direct protein labeling methods, the proposed aptamer-mediated strategy is simple, inexpensive, and provides a highly selective, stable, and intact labeling platform that has shown great promise for future biomedical labeling and intracellular protein dynamic analyses. (paper)

  5. Dynamic nano-imaging of label-free living cells using electron beam excitation-assisted optical microscope

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fukuta, Masahiro; Kanamori, Satoshi; Furukawa, Taichi; Nawa, Yasunori; Inami, Wataru; Lin, Sheng; Kawata, Yoshimasa; Terakawa, Susumu

    2015-01-01

    Optical microscopes are effective tools for cellular function analysis because biological cells can be observed non-destructively and non-invasively in the living state in either water or atmosphere condition. Label-free optical imaging technique such as phase-contrast microscopy has been analysed many cellular functions, and it is essential technology for bioscience field. However, the diffraction limit of light makes it is difficult to image nano-structures in a label-free living cell, for example the endoplasmic reticulum, the Golgi body and the localization of proteins. Here we demonstrate the dynamic imaging of a label-free cell with high spatial resolution by using an electron beam excitation-assisted optical (EXA) microscope. We observed the dynamic movement of the nucleus and nano-scale granules in living cells with better than 100 nm spatial resolution and a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) around 10. Our results contribute to the development of cellular function analysis and open up new bioscience applications. PMID:26525841

  6. Dynamic nano-imaging of label-free living cells using electron beam excitation-assisted optical microscope.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fukuta, Masahiro; Kanamori, Satoshi; Furukawa, Taichi; Nawa, Yasunori; Inami, Wataru; Lin, Sheng; Kawata, Yoshimasa; Terakawa, Susumu

    2015-11-03

    Optical microscopes are effective tools for cellular function analysis because biological cells can be observed non-destructively and non-invasively in the living state in either water or atmosphere condition. Label-free optical imaging technique such as phase-contrast microscopy has been analysed many cellular functions, and it is essential technology for bioscience field. However, the diffraction limit of light makes it is difficult to image nano-structures in a label-free living cell, for example the endoplasmic reticulum, the Golgi body and the localization of proteins. Here we demonstrate the dynamic imaging of a label-free cell with high spatial resolution by using an electron beam excitation-assisted optical (EXA) microscope. We observed the dynamic movement of the nucleus and nano-scale granules in living cells with better than 100 nm spatial resolution and a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) around 10. Our results contribute to the development of cellular function analysis and open up new bioscience applications.

  7. Nanograting-based plasmon enhancement for total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy of live cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Kyujung; Cho, Eun-Jin; Suh, Jin-Suck; Huh, Yong-Min; Kim, Donghyun; Kim, Dong Jun

    2009-01-01

    We investigated evanescent field enhancement based on subwavelength nanogratings for improved sensitivity in total internal reflection microscopy of live cells. The field enhancement is associated with subwavelength-grating-coupled plasmon excitation. An optimum sample employed a silver grating on a silver film and an SF10 glass substrate. Field intensity was enhanced by approximately 90% when measured by fluorescent excitation of microbeads relative to that on a bare prism as a control, which is in good agreement with numerical results. The subwavelength-grating-mediated field enhancement was also applied to live cell imaging of quantum dots, which confirmed the sensitivity enhancement qualitatively.

  8. Live birth potential of good morphology and vitrified blastocysts presenting abnormal cell divisions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Azzarello, Antonino; Høst, Thomas; Hay-Schmidt, Anders

    2017-01-01

    a lower live birth rate (17.0%) than blastocyst with solely regular cell divisions (29.3%). ACDs could occur at more than one cell division in the same good morphology blastocyst. Reported as independent events, we observed ACDs occurring more frequently at the later cell cycles (1st: 1.3%; 2nd: 8.0%; 3rd...

  9. Raman tweezers in microfluidic systems for analysis and sorting of living cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pilát, Zdeněk.; Ježek, Jan; Kaňka, Jan; Zemánek, Pavel

    2014-12-01

    We have devised an analytical and sorting system combining optical trapping with Raman spectroscopy in microfluidic environment, dedicated to identification and sorting of biological objects, such as living cells of various unicellular organisms. Our main goal was to create a robust and universal platform for non-destructive and non-contact sorting of micro-objects based on their Raman spectral properties. This approach allowed us to collect spectra containing information about the chemical composition of the objects, such as the presence and composition of pigments, lipids, proteins, or nucleic acids, avoiding artificial chemical probes such as fluorescent markers. The non-destructive nature of this optical analysis and manipulation allowed us to separate individual living cells of our interest in a sterile environment and provided the possibility to cultivate the selected cells for further experiments. We used a mixture of polystyrene micro-particles and algal cells to test and demonstrate the function of our analytical and sorting system. The devised system could find its use in many medical, biotechnological, and biological applications.

  10. Vibrational imaging of glucose uptake activity in live cells and tissues by stimulated Raman scattering microscopy (Conference Presentation)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Fanghao; Chen, Zhixing; Zhang, Luyuan; Shen, Yihui; Wei, Lu; Min, Wei

    2016-03-01

    Glucose is consumed as an energy source by virtually all living organisms, from bacteria to humans. Its uptake activity closely reflects the cellular metabolic status in various pathophysiological transformations, such as diabetes and cancer. Extensive efforts such as positron emission tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and fluorescence microscopy have been made to specifically image glucose uptake activity but all with technical limitations. Here, we report a new platform to visualize glucose uptake activity in live cells and tissues with subcellular resolution and minimal perturbation. A novel glucose analogue with a small alkyne tag (carbon-carbon triple bond) is developed to mimic natural glucose for cellular uptake, which can be imaged with high sensitivity and specificity by targeting the strong and characteristic alkyne vibration on stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscope to generate a quantitative three dimensional concentration map. Cancer cells with differing metabolic characteristics can be distinguished. Heterogeneous uptake patterns are observed in tumor xenograft tissues, neuronal culture and mouse brain tissues with clear cell-cell variations. Therefore, by offering the distinct advantage of optical resolution but without the undesirable influence of bulky fluorophores, our method of coupling SRS with alkyne labeled glucose will be an attractive tool to study energy demands of living systems at the single cell level.

  11. A transduced living hyaline cartilage graft releasing transgenic stromal cell-derived factor-1 inducing endogenous stem cell homing in vivo.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Feng; Leong, Wenyan; Su, Kai; Fang, Yu; Wang, Dong-An

    2013-05-01

    Stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1), also known as a homing factor, is a potent chemokine that activates and directs mobilization, migration, and retention of certain cell species via systemic circulation. The responding homing cells largely consist of activated stem cells, so that, in case of tissue lesions, such SDF-1-induced cell migration may execute recruitment of endogenous stem cells to perform autoreparation and compensatory regeneration in situ. In this study, a recombinant adenoviral vector carrying SDF-1 transgene was constructed and applied to transduce a novel scaffold-free living hyaline cartilage graft (SDF-t-LhCG). As an engineered transgenic living tissue, SDF-t-LhCG is capable of continuously producing and releasing SDF-1 in vitro and in vivo. The in vitro trials were examined with ELISA, while the in vivo trials were subsequently performed via a subcutaneous implantation of SDF-t-LhCG in a nude mouse model, followed by series of biochemical and biological analyses. The results indicate that transgenic SDF-1 enhanced the presence of this chemokine in mouse's circulation system; in consequence, SDF-1-induced activation and recruitment of endogenous stem cells were also augmented in both peripheral blood and SDF-t-LhCG implant per se. These results were obtained via flow cytometry analyses on mouse blood samples and implanted SDF-t-LhCG samples, indicating an upregulation of the CXCR4(+)(SDF-1 receptor) cell population, accompanied by upregulation of the CD34(+), CD44(+), and Sca-1(+) cell populations as well as a downregulation of the CD11b(+) cell population. With the supply of SDF-1-recruited endogenous stem cells, enhanced chondrogenesis was observed in SDF-t-LhCG implants in situ.

  12. Influence of the environment and phototoxicity of the live cell imaging system at IMP microbeam facility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Wenjing; Du, Guanghua; Guo, Jinlong; Wu, Ruqun; Wei, Junzhe; Chen, Hao; Li, Yaning; Zhao, Jing; Li, Xiaoyue

    2017-08-01

    To investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of DNA damage and repair after the ion irradiation, an online live cell imaging system has been established based on the microbeam facility at Institute of Modern Physics (IMP). The system could provide a sterile and physiological environment by making use of heating plate and live cell imaging solution. The phototoxicity was investigated through the evaluation of DNA repair protein XRCC1 foci formed in HT1080-RFP cells during the imaging exposure. The intensity of the foci induced by phototoxicity was much lower compared with that of the foci induced by heavy ion hits. The results showed that although spontaneous foci were formed due to RFP exposure during live cell imaging, they had little impact on the analysis of the recruitment kinetics of XRCC1 in the foci induced by the ion irradiation.

  13. Manipulation and Motion of Organelles and Single Molecules in Living Cells

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Norregaard, Kamilla; Metzler, Ralf; Ritter, Christine M.

    2017-01-01

    used force spectroscopy techniques, namely optical tweezers, magnetic tweezers, and atomic force microscopy, are described in detail, and their strength and limitations related to in vivo experiments are discussed. Finally, recent exciting discoveries within the field of in vivo manipulation...... driving many cellular processes. The forces on a molecular scale are exactly in the range that can be manipulated and probed with single molecule force spectroscopy. The natural environment of a biomolecule is inside a living cell, hence, this is the most relevant environment for probing their function....... In vivo studies are, however, challenged by the complexity of the cell. In this review, we start with presenting relevant theoretical tools for analyzing single molecule data obtained in intracellular environments followed by a description of state-of-the art visualization techniques. The most commonly...

  14. The Meaning of Being a Living Kidney, Liver, or Stem Cell Donor-A Meta-Ethnography.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kisch, Annika M; Forsberg, Anna; Fridh, Isabell; Almgren, Matilda; Lundmark, Martina; Lovén, Charlotte; Flodén, Anne; Nilsson, Madeleine; Karlsson, Veronika; Lennerling, Annette

    2018-05-01

    Studies on living donors from the donors' perspective show that the donation process involves both positive and negative feelings involving vulnerability. Qualitative studies of living kidney, liver, and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell donors have not previously been merged in the same analysis. Therefore, our aim was to synthesize current knowledge of these donors' experiences to deepen understanding of the meaning of being a living donor for the purpose of saving or extending someone's life. The meta-ethnography steps presented by Noblit and Hare in 1988 were used. Forty-one qualitative studies from 1968 to 2016 that fulfilled the inclusion criteria were analyzed. The studies comprised experiences of over 670 donors. The time since donation varied from 2 days to 29 years. A majority of the studies, 25 of 41, were on living kidney donors. The synthesis revealed that the essential meaning of being a donor is doing what one feels one has to do, involving 6 themes; A sense of responsibility, loneliness and abandonment, suffering, pride and gratitude, a sense of togetherness, and a life changing event. The main issue is that one donates irrespective of what one donates. The relationship to the recipient determines the motives for donation. The deeper insight into the donors' experiences provides implications for their psychological care.

  15. A turn-on fluorescent probe for endogenous formaldehyde in the endoplasmic reticulum of living cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Yonghe; Ma, Yanyan; Xu, An; Xu, Gaoping; Lin, Weiying

    2017-06-01

    As the simplest aldehyde compounds, formaldehyde (FA) is implicated in nervous system diseases and cancer. Endoplasmic reticulum is an organelle that plays important functions in living cells. Accordingly, the development of efficient methods for FA detection in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is of great biomedical importance. In this work, we developed the first ER-targeted fluorescent FA probe Na-FA-ER. The detection is based on the condensation reaction of the hydrazine group and FA to suppress the photo-induced electron transfer (PET) pathway, resulting in a fluorescence increase. The novel Na-FA-ER showed high sensitivity to FA. In addition, the Na-FA-ER enabled the bio-imaging of exogenous and endogenous FA in living HeLa cells. Most significantly, the new Na-FA-ER was employed to visualize the endogenous FA in the ER in living cells for the first time.

  16. Live Staining and Isolation of Specific Hormone-Producing Cells from Rat Anterior Pituitary by Cytochemistry with Lectins and Cholera Toxin B Subunit

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kikuchi, Motoshi; Kusumoto, Kenji; Fujiwara, Ken; Takahashi, Kozue; Tando, Yukiko; Yashiro, Takashi

    2011-01-01

    Anterior pituitary glands contain five types of hormone-producing cells. Distinguishing and isolating specific types of living cells are essential for studying their function. Although many such attempts have been made, the results have been disappointing. In the present study, we labeled specific types of living hormone-producing cells by using potential differences in sugar chains on the cell surfaces. Cytochemical analysis with lectins and cholera toxin B subunit revealed that PNA, S-WGA, and cholera toxin B subunit recognized sugar chains specific to prolactin cells, ACTH cells, and GH cells, respectively, and that UEA-I recognized most of prolactin cells and GH cells. Next, fluorescence-activated cell sorting was used to isolate GH cells labeled by fluoresceinated cholera toxin B. The purity of the GH cell fraction estimated by immunocytochemistry and quantitative real-time PCR for cell type-specific genes was more than 98%, which was higher than that reported in earlier studies, including those using transgenic animals. We conclude that cytochemistry with lectins and cholera toxin B subunit is a straightforward, acceptable method of isolating specific types of anterior pituitary cells and that the cells isolated by this method can serve as useful materials in the study of anterior pituitary cells

  17. Quantitative analysis of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling using live-cell total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Heath E; Haugh, Jason M

    2013-12-02

    This unit focuses on the use of total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy and image analysis methods to study the dynamics of signal transduction mediated by class I phosphoinositide 3-kinases (PI3Ks) in mammalian cells. The first four protocols cover live-cell imaging experiments, image acquisition parameters, and basic image processing and segmentation. These methods are generally applicable to live-cell TIRF experiments. The remaining protocols outline more advanced image analysis methods, which were developed in our laboratory for the purpose of characterizing the spatiotemporal dynamics of PI3K signaling. These methods may be extended to analyze other cellular processes monitored using fluorescent biosensors. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

  18. Live-cell calcium imaging of adherent and non-adherent GL261 cells reveals phenotype-dependent differences in drug responses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strong, Averey D; Daniels, Richard L

    2017-08-02

    The tumor-derived GL261 cell line is used as a model for studying glioblastoma and other high-grade gliomas, and can be cultured adherently or as free-floating aggregates known as neurospheres. These different culture conditions give rise to distinct phenotypes, with increased tumorigenicity displayed by neurosphere-cultured cells. An important technique for understanding GL261 pathobiology is live cell fluorescent imaging of intracellular calcium. However, live cell imaging of GL261 neurospheres presents a technical challenge, as experimental manipulations where drugs are added to the extracellular media cause the cells to move during analysis. Here we present a method to immobilize GL261 neurospheres with low melting point agarose for calcium imaging using the fluorescent calcium sensor fura-2. GL261 cells were obtained from the NCI-Frederick Cancer Research Tumor Repository and cultured as adherent cells or induced to form neurospheres by placing freshly trypsinized cells into serum-free media containing fibroblast growth factor 2, epidermal growth factor, and B-27 supplement. Prior to experiments, adherent cells were loaded with fura-2 and cultured on 8-well chamber slides. Non-adherent neurospheres were first loaded with fura-2, placed in droplets onto an 8-well chamber slide, and finally covered with a thin layer of low melting point agarose to immobilize the cells. Ratiometric pseudocolored images were obtained during treatment with ATP, capsaicin, or vehicle control. Cells were marked as responsive if fluorescence levels increased more than 30% above baseline. Differences between treatment groups were tested using Student's t-tests and one-way ANOVA. We found that cellular responses to pharmacological treatments differ based on cellular phenotype. Adherent cells and neurospheres both responded to ATP with a rise in intracellular calcium. Notably, capsaicin treatment led to robust responses in GL261 neurospheres but not adherent cells. We demonstrate the use

  19. Immobilizing live Escherichia coli for AFM studies of surface dynamics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lonergan, N.E.; Britt, L.D.; Sullivan, C.J.

    2014-01-01

    Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a probe-based technique that permits high resolution imaging of live bacterial cells. However, stably immobilizing cells to withstand the probe-based lateral forces remains an obstacle in AFM mediated studies, especially those of live, rod shaped bacteria in nutrient media. Consequently, AFM has been under-utilized in the research of bacterial surface dynamics. The aim of the current study was to immobilize a less adherent Escherichia coli strain in a method that both facilitates AFM imaging in nutrient broth and preserves overall cell viability. Immobilization reagents and buffers were systematically evaluated and the cell membrane integrity was monitored in all sample preparations. As expected, the biocompatible gelatin coated surfaces facilitated stable cell attachment in lower ionic strength buffers, yet poorly immobilized cells in higher ionic strength buffers. In comparison, poly-L-lysine surfaces bound cells in both low and high ionic strength buffers. The benefit of the poly-L-lysine binding capacity was offset by the compromised membrane integrity exhibited by cells on poly-L-lysine surfaces. However, the addition of divalent cations and glucose to the immobilization buffer was found to mitigate this unfavorable effect. Ultimately, immobilization of E. coli cells on poly-L-lysine surfaces in a lower ionic strength buffer supplemented with Mg 2+ and Ca 2+ was determined to provide optimal cell attachment without compromising the overall cell viability. Cells immobilized in this method were stably imaged in media through multiple division cycles. Furthermore, permeability assays indicated that E. coli cells recover from the hypoosmotic stress caused by immobilization in low ionic strength buffers. Taken together, this data suggests that stable immobilization of viable cells on poly-L-lysine surfaces can be accomplished in lower ionic strength buffers that are supplemented with divalent cations for membrane stabilization while

  20. Monitoring of living cell attachment and spreading using reverse symmetry waveguide sensing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Horvath, R.; Pedersen, H.C.; Skivesen, N.

    2005-01-01

    The effect of the attachment and spreading of living cells on the modes of a grating coupled reverse symmetry waveguide sensor is investigated in real time. The reverse symmetry design has an increased probing depth into the sample making it well suited for the monitoring of cell morphology....... As a result, significant changes in the incoupling peak height and peak shape were observed during cell attachment and spreading. It is suggested that the area under the incoupling peaks reflects the initial cell attachment process, while the mean peak position is mostly governed by the spreading of the cells...

  1. Superresolution imaging in live Caulobacter crescentus cells using photoswitchable enhanced yellow fluorescent protein

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biteen, Julie S.; Thompson, Michael A.; Tselentis, Nicole K.; Shapiro, Lucy; Moerner, W. E.

    2009-02-01

    Recently, photoactivation and photoswitching were used to control single-molecule fluorescent labels and produce images of cellular structures beyond the optical diffraction limit (e.g., PALM, FPALM, and STORM). While previous live-cell studies relied on sophisticated photoactivatable fluorescent proteins, we show in the present work that superresolution imaging can be performed with fusions to the commonly used fluorescent protein EYFP. Rather than being photoactivated, however, EYFP can be reactivated with violet light after apparent photobleaching. In each cycle after initial imaging, only a sparse subset fluorophores is reactivated and localized, and the final image is then generated from the measured single-molecule positions. Because these methods are based on the imaging nanometer-sized single-molecule emitters and on the use of an active control mechanism to produce sparse sub-ensembles, we suggest the phrase "Single-Molecule Active-Control Microscopy" (SMACM) as an inclusive term for this general imaging strategy. In this paper, we address limitations arising from physiologically imposed upper boundaries on the fluorophore concentration by employing dark time-lapse periods to allow single-molecule motions to fill in filamentous structures, increasing the effective labeling concentration while localizing each emitter at most once per resolution-limited spot. We image cell-cycle-dependent superstructures of the bacterial actin protein MreB in live Caulobacter crescentus cells with sub-40-nm resolution for the first time. Furthermore, we quantify the reactivation quantum yield of EYFP, and find this to be 1.6 x 10-6, on par with conventional photoswitchable fluorescent proteins like Dronpa. These studies show that EYFP is a useful emitter for in vivo superresolution imaging of intracellular structures in bacterial cells.

  2. Using Single-Protein Tracking to Study Cell Migration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orré, Thomas; Mehidi, Amine; Massou, Sophie; Rossier, Olivier; Giannone, Grégory

    2018-01-01

    To get a complete understanding of cell migration, it is critical to study its orchestration at the molecular level. Since the recent developments in single-molecule imaging, it is now possible to study molecular phenomena at the single-molecule level inside living cells. In this chapter, we describe how such approaches have been and can be used to decipher molecular mechanisms involved in cell migration.

  3. Digital photocontrol of the network of live excitable cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erofeev, I. S.; Magome, N.; Agladze, K. I.

    2011-11-01

    Recent development of tissue engineering techniques allows creating and maintaining almost indefinitely networks of excitable cells with desired architecture. We coupled the network of live excitable cardiac cells with a common computer by sensitizing them to light, projecting a light pattern on the layer of cells, and monitoring excitation with the aid of fluorescent probes (optical mapping). As a sensitizing substance we used azobenzene trimethylammonium bromide (AzoTAB). This substance undergoes cis-trans-photoisomerization and trans-isomer of AzoTAB inhibits excitation in the cardiac cells, while cis-isomer does not. AzoTAB-mediated sensitization allows, thus, reversible and dynamic control of the excitation waves through the entire cardiomyocyte network either uniformly, or in a preferred spatial pattern. Technically, it was achieved by coupling a common digital projector with a macroview microscope and using computer graphic software for creating the projected pattern of conducting pathways. This approach allows real time interactive photocontrol of the heart tissue.

  4. High content live cell imaging for the discovery of new antimalarial marine natural products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cervantes Serena

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The human malaria parasite remains a burden in developing nations. It is responsible for up to one million deaths a year, a number that could rise due to increasing multi-drug resistance to all antimalarial drugs currently available. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the discovery of new drug therapies. Recently, our laboratory developed a simple one-step fluorescence-based live cell-imaging assay to integrate the complex biology of the human malaria parasite into drug discovery. Here we used our newly developed live cell-imaging platform to discover novel marine natural products and their cellular phenotypic effects against the most lethal malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Methods A high content live cell imaging platform was used to screen marine extracts effects on malaria. Parasites were grown in vitro in the presence of extracts, stained with RNA sensitive dye, and imaged at timed intervals with the BD Pathway HT automated confocal microscope. Results Image analysis validated our new methodology at a larger scale level and revealed potential antimalarial activity of selected extracts with a minimal cytotoxic effect on host red blood cells. To further validate our assay, we investigated parasite's phenotypes when incubated with the purified bioactive natural product bromophycolide A. We show that bromophycolide A has a strong and specific morphological effect on parasites, similar to the ones observed from the initial extracts. Conclusion Collectively, our results show that high-content live cell-imaging (HCLCI can be used to screen chemical libraries and identify parasite specific inhibitors with limited host cytotoxic effects. All together we provide new leads for the discovery of novel antimalarials.

  5. High content live cell imaging for the discovery of new antimalarial marine natural products.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cervantes, Serena; Stout, Paige E; Prudhomme, Jacques; Engel, Sebastian; Bruton, Matthew; Cervantes, Michael; Carter, David; Tae-Chang, Young; Hay, Mark E; Aalbersberg, William; Kubanek, Julia; Le Roch, Karine G

    2012-01-03

    The human malaria parasite remains a burden in developing nations. It is responsible for up to one million deaths a year, a number that could rise due to increasing multi-drug resistance to all antimalarial drugs currently available. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the discovery of new drug therapies. Recently, our laboratory developed a simple one-step fluorescence-based live cell-imaging assay to integrate the complex biology of the human malaria parasite into drug discovery. Here we used our newly developed live cell-imaging platform to discover novel marine natural products and their cellular phenotypic effects against the most lethal malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. A high content live cell imaging platform was used to screen marine extracts effects on malaria. Parasites were grown in vitro in the presence of extracts, stained with RNA sensitive dye, and imaged at timed intervals with the BD Pathway HT automated confocal microscope. Image analysis validated our new methodology at a larger scale level and revealed potential antimalarial activity of selected extracts with a minimal cytotoxic effect on host red blood cells. To further validate our assay, we investigated parasite's phenotypes when incubated with the purified bioactive natural product bromophycolide A. We show that bromophycolide A has a strong and specific morphological effect on parasites, similar to the ones observed from the initial extracts. Collectively, our results show that high-content live cell-imaging (HCLCI) can be used to screen chemical libraries and identify parasite specific inhibitors with limited host cytotoxic effects. All together we provide new leads for the discovery of novel antimalarials. © 2011 Cervantes et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

  6. Fluorescent peptide biosensor for probing the relative abundance of cyclin-dependent kinases in living cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laetitia Kurzawa

    Full Text Available Cyclin-dependant kinases play a central role in coordinating cell growth and division, and in sustaining proliferation of cancer cells, thereby constituting attractive pharmacological targets. However, there are no direct means of assessing their relative abundance in living cells, current approaches being limited to antigenic and proteomic analysis of fixed cells. In order to probe the relative abundance of these kinases directly in living cells, we have developed a fluorescent peptide biosensor with biligand affinity for CDKs and cyclins in vitro, that retains endogenous CDK/cyclin complexes from cell extracts, and that bears an environmentally-sensitive probe, whose fluorescence increases in a sensitive fashion upon recognition of its targets. CDKSENS was introduced into living cells, through complexation with the cell-penetrating carrier CADY2 and applied to assess the relative abundance of CDK/Cyclins through fluorescence imaging and ratiometric quantification. This peptide biosensor technology affords direct and sensitive readout of CDK/cyclin complex levels, and reports on differences in complex formation when tampering with a single CDK or cyclin. CDKSENS further allows for detection of differences between different healthy and cancer cell lines, thereby enabling to distinguish cells that express high levels of these heterodimeric kinases, from cells that present decreased or defective assemblies. This fluorescent biosensor technology provides information on the overall status of CDK/Cyclin complexes which cannot be obtained through antigenic detection of individual subunits, in a non-invasive fashion which does not require cell fixation or extraction procedures. As such it provides promising perspectives for monitoring the response to therapeutics that affect CDK/Cyclin abundance, for cell-based drug discovery strategies and fluorescence-based cancer diagnostics.

  7. Using cell-substrate impedance and live cell imaging to measure real-time changes in cellular adhesion and de-adhesion induced by matrix modification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rees, Martin D; Thomas, Shane R

    2015-02-19

    Cell-matrix adhesion plays a key role in controlling cell morphology and signaling. Stimuli that disrupt cell-matrix adhesion (e.g., myeloperoxidase and other matrix-modifying oxidants/enzymes released during inflammation) are implicated in triggering pathological changes in cellular function, phenotype and viability in a number of diseases. Here, we describe how cell-substrate impedance and live cell imaging approaches can be readily employed to accurately quantify real-time changes in cell adhesion and de-adhesion induced by matrix modification (using endothelial cells and myeloperoxidase as a pathophysiological matrix-modifying stimulus) with high temporal resolution and in a non-invasive manner. The xCELLigence cell-substrate impedance system continuously quantifies the area of cell-matrix adhesion by measuring the electrical impedance at the cell-substrate interface in cells grown on gold microelectrode arrays. Image analysis of time-lapse differential interference contrast movies quantifies changes in the projected area of individual cells over time, representing changes in the area of cell-matrix contact. Both techniques accurately quantify rapid changes to cellular adhesion and de-adhesion processes. Cell-substrate impedance on microelectrode biosensor arrays provides a platform for robust, high-throughput measurements. Live cell imaging analyses provide additional detail regarding the nature and dynamics of the morphological changes quantified by cell-substrate impedance measurements. These complementary approaches provide valuable new insights into how myeloperoxidase-catalyzed oxidative modification of subcellular extracellular matrix components triggers rapid changes in cell adhesion, morphology and signaling in endothelial cells. These approaches are also applicable for studying cellular adhesion dynamics in response to other matrix-modifying stimuli and in related adherent cells (e.g., epithelial cells).

  8. The Gouy-Stodola Theorem in Bioenergetic Analysis of Living Systems (Irreversibility in Bioenergetics of Living Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Umberto Lucia

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Thermodynamics studies the transformations of energy occurring in open systems. Living systems, with particular reference to cells, are complex systems in which energy transformations occur. Thermo-electro-chemical processes and transports occur across their border, the cells membranes. These processes take place with important differences between healthy and diseased states. In particular, different thermal and biochemical behaviours can be highlighted between these two states and they can be related to the energy transformations inside the living systems, in particular the metabolic behaviour. Moreover, living systems waste heat. This heat is the consequence of the internal irreversibility. Irreversibility is effectively studied by using the Gouy-Stodola theorem. Consequently, this approach can be introduced in the analysis of the states of living systems, in order to obtain a unifying approach to study them. Indeed, this approach allows us to consider living systems as black boxes and analyze only the inflows and outflows and their changes in relation to the modification of the environment, so information on the systems can be obtained by analyzing their behaviour in relation to the modification of external perturbations. This paper presents a review of the recent results obtained in the thermodynamics analysis of cell systems.

  9. Imaging in living cells using νB-H Raman spectroscopy: monitoring COSAN uptake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tarrés, Màrius; Canetta, Elisabetta; Viñas, Clara; Teixidor, Francesc; Harwood, Adrian J

    2014-03-28

    The boron-rich cobaltabisdicarbollide (COSAN) and its 8,8'-I2 derivative (I2-COSAN), both of purely inorganic nature, are shown to accumulate within living cells, where they can be detected using νB-H Raman microspectroscopy. This demonstrates an alternative method for cell labelling and detection.

  10. Bio-electrospraying and droplet-based microfluidics: control of cell numbers within living residues

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hong Jongin; DeMello, Andrew J [Nanostructured Materials and Devices Group, Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ (United Kingdom); Jayasinghe, Suwan N, E-mail: a.demello@imperial.ac.u, E-mail: s.jayasinghe@ucl.ac.u [BioPhysics Group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, Torrington Place, London WC1E 7JE (United Kingdom)

    2010-04-15

    Bio-electrospraying (BES) has demonstrated great promise as a rapidly evolving strategy for tissue engineering and regenerative biology/medicine. Since its discovery in 2005, many studies have confirmed that cells (immortalized, primary and stem cells) and whole organisms (Danio rerio, Xenopus tropicalis, Caenorhabditis elegans to Drosophila) remain viable post-bio-electrospraying. Although this bio-protocol has achieved much, it suffers from one crucial problem, namely the ability to precisely control the number of cells within droplets and or encapsulations. If overcome, BES has the potential to become a high-efficiency biotechnique for controlled cell encapsulation, a technique most useful for a wide range of applications in biology and medicine ranging from the forming of three-dimensional cultures to an approach for treating diseases such as type I diabetes. In this communication, we address this issue by demonstrating the coupling of BES with droplet-based microfluidics for controlling live cell numbers within droplets and residues. (communication)

  11. Bio-electrospraying and droplet-based microfluidics: control of cell numbers within living residues

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hong Jongin; DeMello, Andrew J; Jayasinghe, Suwan N

    2010-01-01

    Bio-electrospraying (BES) has demonstrated great promise as a rapidly evolving strategy for tissue engineering and regenerative biology/medicine. Since its discovery in 2005, many studies have confirmed that cells (immortalized, primary and stem cells) and whole organisms (Danio rerio, Xenopus tropicalis, Caenorhabditis elegans to Drosophila) remain viable post-bio-electrospraying. Although this bio-protocol has achieved much, it suffers from one crucial problem, namely the ability to precisely control the number of cells within droplets and or encapsulations. If overcome, BES has the potential to become a high-efficiency biotechnique for controlled cell encapsulation, a technique most useful for a wide range of applications in biology and medicine ranging from the forming of three-dimensional cultures to an approach for treating diseases such as type I diabetes. In this communication, we address this issue by demonstrating the coupling of BES with droplet-based microfluidics for controlling live cell numbers within droplets and residues. (communication)

  12. A bioaccumulative cyclometalated platinum(II) complex with two-photon-induced emission for live cell imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koo, Chi-Kin; Wong, Ka-Leung; Man, Cornelia Wing-Yin; Lam, Yun-Wah; So, Leo King-Yan; Tam, Hoi-Lam; Tsao, Sai-Wah; Cheah, Kok-Wai; Lau, Kai-Chung; Yang, Yang-Yi; Chen, Jin-Can; Lam, Michael Hon-Wah

    2009-02-02

    The cyclometalated platinum(II) complex [Pt(L)Cl], where HL is a new cyclometalating ligand 2-phenyl-6-(1H-pyrazol-3-yl)pyridine containing C(phenyl), N(pyridyl), and N(pyrazolyl) donor moieties, was found to possess two-photon-induced luminescent properties. The two-photon-absorption cross section of the complex in N,N-dimethylformamide at room temperature was measured to be 20.8 GM. Upon two-photon excitation at 730 nm from a Ti:sapphire laser, bright-green emission was observed. Besides its two-photon-induced luminescent properties, [Pt(L)Cl] was able to be rapidly accumulated in live HeLa and NIH3T3 cells. The two-photon-induced luminescence of the complex was retained after live cell internalization and can be observed by two-photon confocal microscopy. Its bioaccumulation properties enabled time-lapse imaging of the internalization process of the dye into living cells. Cytotoxicity of [Pt(L)Cl] to both tested cell lines was low, according to MTT assays, even at loadings as high as 20 times the dose concentration for imaging for 6 h.

  13. Electrical pulse – mediated enhanced delivery of silver nanoparticles into living suspension cells for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin, J; Li, B; Feng, S; Chen, G; Li, Y; Huang, Z; Chen, R; Yu, Y; Huang, H; Lin, S; Li, C; Su, Y; Zeng, H

    2012-01-01

    Electrical pulse-mediated enhanced silver nanoparticles delivery is a much better method for intracellular surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) measurements of suspension cells. Robust and high-quality SERS spectra of living suspension cells were obtained based on an electroporation-SERS method, which can overcomes the shortcoming of non-uniform distribution of silver nanoparticles localized in the cell cytoplasm after electroporation and reduces the amount variance of silver nanoparticles delivered into different cells. The electroporation parameters include three 150 V (375 V/cm) electric pulses of 1, 5, and 5 ms durations respectively. Our results indicate that considerable amount of silver nanoparticles can be rapidly delivered into the human promyelocytic leukemia HL60 cells, and the satisfied SERS spectra were obtained while the viability of the treated cells was highly maintained (91.7%). The electroporation-SERS method offers great potential approach in delivering silver nanoparticles into living suspension cells, which is useful for widely biomedical applications including the real-time intracellular SERS analysis of living cells

  14. Live Imaging of HIV-1 Transfer across T Cell Virological Synapse to Epithelial Cells that Promotes Stromal Macrophage Infection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Real, Fernando; Sennepin, Alexis; Ganor, Yonatan; Schmitt, Alain; Bomsel, Morgane

    2018-05-08

    During sexual intercourse, HIV-1 crosses epithelial barriers composing the genital mucosa, a poorly understood feature that requires an HIV-1-infected cell vectoring efficient mucosal HIV-1 entry. Therefore, urethral mucosa comprising a polarized epithelium and a stroma composed of fibroblasts and macrophages were reconstructed in vitro. Using this system, we demonstrate by live imaging that efficient HIV-1 transmission to stromal macrophages depends on cell-mediated transfer of the virus through virological synapses formed between HIV-1-infected CD4 + T cells and the epithelial cell mucosal surface. We visualized HIV-1 translocation through mucosal epithelial cells via transcytosis in regions where virological synapses occurred. In turn, interleukin-13 is secreted and HIV-1 targets macrophages, which develop a latent state of infection reversed by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) activation. The live observation of virological synapse formation reported herein is key in the design of vaccines and antiretroviral therapies aimed at blocking HIV-1 access to cellular reservoirs in genital mucosa. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  15. Self-adhesive microculture system for extended live cell imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Skommer, J; McGuinness, D; Wlodkowic, D

    2011-06-01

    Gas permeable and biocompatible soft polymers are convenient for biological applications. Using the soft polymer poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), we established a straightforward technique for in-house production of self-adhesive and optical grade microculture devices. A gas permeable PDMS layer effectively protects against medium evaporation, changes in osmolarity, contamination and drug diffusion. These chip-based devices can be used effectively for long term mammalian cell culture and support a range of bioassays used in pharmacological profiling of anti-cancer drugs. Results obtained on a panel of hematopoietic and solid tumor cell lines during screening of investigative anti-cancer agents corresponded well to those obtained in a conventional cell culture on polystyrene plates. The cumulative correlation analysis of multiple cell lines and anti-cancer drugs showed no adverse effects on cell viability or cell growth retardation during microscale static cell culture. PDMS devices also can be custom modified for many bio-analytical purposes and are interfaced easily with both inverted and upright cell imaging platforms. Moreover, PDMS microculture devices are suitable for extended real time cell imaging. Data from the multicolor, real time analysis of apoptosis on human breast cancer MCF-7 cells provided further evidence that elimination of redundant centrifugation/washing achieved during microscale real time analysis facilitates preservation of fragile apoptotic cells and provides dynamic cellular information at high resolution. Because only small reaction volumes are required, such devices offer reduced use of consumables as well as simplified manipulations during all stages of live cell imaging.

  16. Concentration-dependent fluorescence live-cell imaging and tracking of intracellular nanoparticles

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Seo, Ji Hye; Joo, Sang-Woo [Department of Chemistry, Soongsil University, Seoul 156-743 (Korea, Republic of); Cho, Keunchang [Logos Biosystems, Incorporated, Anyang 431-070 (Korea, Republic of); Lee, So Yeong, E-mail: leeso@snu.ac.kr, E-mail: sjoo@ssu.ac.kr [Laboratory of Pharmacology, College of Veterinary Medicine and Research Institute for Veterinary Science, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742 (Korea, Republic of)

    2011-06-10

    Using live-cell imaging techniques we investigated concentration-dependent intracellular movements of fluorescence nanoparticles (NPs) in real-time after their entry into HeLa cells via incubation. Intracellular particle traces appeared to be a mixture of both random and fairly unidirectional movements of the particles. At rather low concentrations of NPs, a majority of the non-random intracellular particle trajectories are assumed to mostly go along microtubule networks after endocytosis, as evidenced from the inhibition test with nocodazole. On the other hand, as the concentrations of NPs increased, random motions were more frequently observed inside the cells.

  17. Concentration-dependent fluorescence live-cell imaging and tracking of intracellular nanoparticles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seo, Ji Hye; Joo, Sang-Woo; Cho, Keunchang; Lee, So Yeong

    2011-01-01

    Using live-cell imaging techniques we investigated concentration-dependent intracellular movements of fluorescence nanoparticles (NPs) in real-time after their entry into HeLa cells via incubation. Intracellular particle traces appeared to be a mixture of both random and fairly unidirectional movements of the particles. At rather low concentrations of NPs, a majority of the non-random intracellular particle trajectories are assumed to mostly go along microtubule networks after endocytosis, as evidenced from the inhibition test with nocodazole. On the other hand, as the concentrations of NPs increased, random motions were more frequently observed inside the cells.

  18. Imaging Live Cells at the Nanometer-Scale with Single-Molecule Microscopy: Obstacles and Achievements in Experiment Optimization for Microbiology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haas, Beth L.; Matson, Jyl S.; DiRita, Victor J.; Biteen, Julie S.

    2015-01-01

    Single-molecule fluorescence microscopy enables biological investigations inside living cells to achieve millisecond- and nanometer-scale resolution. Although single-molecule-based methods are becoming increasingly accessible to non-experts, optimizing new single-molecule experiments can be challenging, in particular when super-resolution imaging and tracking are applied to live cells. In this review, we summarize common obstacles to live-cell single-molecule microscopy and describe the methods we have developed and applied to overcome these challenges in live bacteria. We examine the choice of fluorophore and labeling scheme, approaches to achieving single-molecule levels of fluorescence, considerations for maintaining cell viability, and strategies for detecting single-molecule signals in the presence of noise and sample drift. We also discuss methods for analyzing single-molecule trajectories and the challenges presented by the finite size of a bacterial cell and the curvature of the bacterial membrane. PMID:25123183

  19. Exploring Transduction Mechanisms of Protein Transduction Domains (PTDs in Living Cells Utilizing Single-Quantum Dot Tracking (SQT Technology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yasuhiro Suzuki

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Specific protein domains known as protein transduction domains (PTDs can permeate cell membranes and deliver proteins or bioactive materials into living cells. Various approaches have been applied for improving their transduction efficacy. It is, therefore, crucial to clarify the entry mechanisms and to identify the rate-limiting steps. Because of technical limitations for imaging PTD behavior on cells with conventional fluorescent-dyes, how PTDs enter the cells has been a topic of much debate. Utilizing quantum dots (QDs, we recently tracked the behavior of PTD that was derived from HIV-1 Tat (TatP in living cells at the single-molecule level with 7-nm special precision. In this review article, we initially summarize the controversy on TatP entry mechanisms; thereafter, we will focus on our recent findings on single-TatP-QD tracking (SQT, to identify the major sequential steps of intracellular delivery in living cells and to discuss how SQT can easily provide direct information on TatP entry mechanisms. As a primer for SQT study, we also discuss the latest findings on single particle tracking of various molecules on the plasma membrane. Finally, we discuss the problems of QDs and the challenges for the future in utilizing currently available QD probes for SQT. In conclusion, direct identification of the rate-limiting steps of PTD entry with SQT should dramatically improve the methods for enhancing transduction efficiency.

  20. Artificial cell mimics as simplified models for the study of cell biology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salehi-Reyhani, Ali; Ces, Oscar; Elani, Yuval

    2017-07-01

    Living cells are hugely complex chemical systems composed of a milieu of distinct chemical species (including DNA, proteins, lipids, and metabolites) interconnected with one another through a vast web of interactions: this complexity renders the study of cell biology in a quantitative and systematic manner a difficult task. There has been an increasing drive towards the utilization of artificial cells as cell mimics to alleviate this, a development that has been aided by recent advances in artificial cell construction. Cell mimics are simplified cell-like structures, composed from the bottom-up with precisely defined and tunable compositions. They allow specific facets of cell biology to be studied in isolation, in a simplified environment where control of variables can be achieved without interference from a living and responsive cell. This mini-review outlines the core principles of this approach and surveys recent key investigations that use cell mimics to address a wide range of biological questions. It will also place the field in the context of emerging trends, discuss the associated limitations, and outline future directions of the field. Impact statement Recent years have seen an increasing drive to construct cell mimics and use them as simplified experimental models to replicate and understand biological phenomena in a well-defined and controlled system. By summarizing the advances in this burgeoning field, and using case studies as a basis for discussion on the limitations and future directions of this approach, it is hoped that this minireview will spur others in the experimental biology community to use artificial cells as simplified models with which to probe biological systems.

  1. Labeling proteins inside living cells using external fluorophores for microscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teng, Kai Wen; Ishitsuka, Yuji; Ren, Pin; Youn, Yeoan; Deng, Xiang; Ge, Pinghua; Lee, Sang Hak; Belmont, Andrew S; Selvin, Paul R

    2016-12-09

    Site-specific fluorescent labeling of proteins inside live mammalian cells has been achieved by employing Streptolysin O, a bacterial enzyme which forms temporary pores in the membrane and allows delivery of virtually any fluorescent probes, ranging from labeled IgG's to small ligands, with high efficiency (>85% of cells). The whole process, including recovery, takes 30 min, and the cell is ready to be imaged immediately. A variety of cell viability tests were performed after treatment with SLO to ensure that the cells have intact membranes, are able to divide, respond normally to signaling molecules, and maintains healthy organelle morphology. When combined with Oxyrase, a cell-friendly photostabilizer, a ~20x improvement in fluorescence photostability is achieved. By adding in glutathione, fluorophores are made to blink, enabling super-resolution fluorescence with 20-30 nm resolution over a long time (~30 min) under continuous illumination. Example applications in conventional and super-resolution imaging of native and transfected cells include p65 signal transduction activation, single molecule tracking of kinesin, and specific labeling of a series of nuclear and cytoplasmic protein complexes.

  2. Nanomechanical and topographical imaging of living cells by atomic force microscopy with colloidal probes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Puricelli, Luca; Galluzzi, Massimiliano; Schulte, Carsten; Podestà, Alessandro, E-mail: alessandro.podesta@mi.infn.it; Milani, Paolo [CIMaINa and Department of Physics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano (Italy)

    2015-03-15

    Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) has a great potential as a tool to characterize mechanical and morphological properties of living cells; these properties have been shown to correlate with cells’ fate and patho-physiological state in view of the development of novel early-diagnostic strategies. Although several reports have described experimental and technical approaches for the characterization of cellular elasticity by means of AFM, a robust and commonly accepted methodology is still lacking. Here, we show that micrometric spherical probes (also known as colloidal probes) are well suited for performing a combined topographic and mechanical analysis of living cells, with spatial resolution suitable for a complete and accurate mapping of cell morphological and elastic properties, and superior reliability and accuracy in the mechanical measurements with respect to conventional and widely used sharp AFM tips. We address a number of issues concerning the nanomechanical analysis, including the applicability of contact mechanical models and the impact of a constrained contact geometry on the measured Young’s modulus (the finite-thickness effect). We have tested our protocol by imaging living PC12 and MDA-MB-231 cells, in order to demonstrate the importance of the correction of the finite-thickness effect and the change in Young’s modulus induced by the action of a cytoskeleton-targeting drug.

  3. Three dimensional live-cell STED microscopy at increased depth using a water immersion objective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heine, Jörn; Wurm, Christian A.; Keller-Findeisen, Jan; Schönle, Andreas; Harke, Benjamin; Reuss, Matthias; Winter, Franziska R.; Donnert, Gerald

    2018-05-01

    Modern fluorescence superresolution microscopes are capable of imaging living cells on the nanometer scale. One of those techniques is stimulated emission depletion (STED) which increases the microscope's resolution many times in the lateral and the axial directions. To achieve these high resolutions not only close to the coverslip but also at greater depths, the choice of objective becomes crucial. Oil immersion objectives have frequently been used for STED imaging since their high numerical aperture (NA) leads to high spatial resolutions. But during live-cell imaging, especially at great penetration depths, these objectives have a distinct disadvantage. The refractive index mismatch between the immersion oil and the usually aqueous embedding media of living specimens results in unwanted spherical aberrations. These aberrations distort the point spread functions (PSFs). Notably, during z- and 3D-STED imaging, the resolution increase along the optical axis is majorly hampered if at all possible. To overcome this limitation, we here use a water immersion objective in combination with a spatial light modulator for z-STED measurements of living samples at great depths. This compact design allows for switching between objectives without having to adapt the STED beam path and enables on the fly alterations of the STED PSF to correct for aberrations. Furthermore, we derive the influence of the NA on the axial STED resolution theoretically and experimentally. We show under live-cell imaging conditions that a water immersion objective leads to far superior results than an oil immersion objective at penetration depths of 5-180 μm.

  4. A benzothiazole-based fluorescent probe for hypochlorous acid detection and imaging in living cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, Khac Hong; Hao, Yuanqiang; Zeng, Ke; Fan, Shengnan; Li, Fen; Yuan, Suke; Ding, Xuejing; Xu, Maotian; Liu, You-Nian

    2018-06-01

    A benzothiazole-based turn-on fluorescent probe with a large Stokes shift (190 nm) has been developed for hypochlorous acid detection. The probe displays prompt fluorescence response for HClO with excellent selectivity over other reactive oxygen species as well as a low detection limit of 0.08 μM. The sensing mechanism involves the HClO-induced specific oxidation of oxime moiety of the probe to nitrile oxide, which was confirmed by HPLC-MS technique. Furthermore, imaging studies demonstrated that the probe is cell permeable and can be applied to detect HClO in living cells.

  5. Silicon nanocrystals and nanodiamonds in live cells: photoluminescence characteristics, cytotoxicity and interaction with cell cytoskeleton

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Fučíková, A.; Valenta, J.; Pelant, Ivan; Hubálek Kalbáčová, M.; Brož, A.; Rezek, Bohuslav; Kromka, Alexander; Bakaeva, Zulfiya

    2014-01-01

    Roč. 4, č. 20 (2014), s. 10334-10342 ISSN 2046-2069 R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GBP108/12/G108; GA ČR GA202/09/2078 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 ; RVO:61389013 Keywords : silicon nanocrystals * nanodiamonds * live cells * photoluminescence Subject RIV: BO - Biophysics Impact factor: 3.840, year: 2014

  6. Structural model of radiation effects in living cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Neyman, J.; Puri, P.S.

    1976-01-01

    The chance mechanism of cell damage and of repair in the course of irradiation involves two details familiar to biologists that thus far seem to have been overlooked in mathematical treatment. One of these details is that, generally, the passage of a single ''primary'' radiation particle generates a ''cluster'' of secondaries which can produce ''hits'' that damage the living cell. With high linear energy transfer, each cluster contains very many secondary particles. With low linear energy transfer, the number of secondaries per cluster is generally small. The second overlooked detail of the chance mechanism is concerned with what may be called the time scales of radiation damage and of the subsequent repair. The generation of a cluster of secondary particles and the possible hits occur so rapidly that, for all practical purposes, they may be considered as occurring instantly. On the other hand, the subsequent changes in the damaged cells appear to require measurable amounts of time. The constructed stochastic model embodies these details, the clustering of secondary particles and the time scale difference. The results explain certain details of observed phenomena

  7. Following the Dynamics of pH in Endosomes of Live Cells with SERS Nanosensors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kneipp, J.; Kneipp, Harald; Wittig, B.

    2010-01-01

    The surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectrum of a reporter molecule attached to gold or silver nanostructures, which is pH-sensitive, can deliver information on the local pH in the environment of the nanostructure. Here, we demonstrate the use of a mobile SERS nanosensor made from gold...... nanaoaggregates and 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (pMBA) attached as a reporter for monitoring changes in local pH of the cellular compartments of living NIH/3T3 cells. We show that SERS nanosensors enable the dynamics of local pH in individual live cells to be followed at subendosomal resolution in a timeline...

  8. Detection of constitutive heterodimerization of the integrin Mac-1 subunits by fluorescence resonance energy transfer in living cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fu Guo; Yang Huayan; Wang Chen; Zhang Feng; You Zhendong; Wang Guiying; He Cheng; Chen Yizhang; Xu Zhihan

    2006-01-01

    Macrophage differentiation antigen associated with complement three receptor function (Mac-1) belongs to β 2 subfamily of integrins that mediate important cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions. Biochemical studies have indicated that Mac-1 is a constitutive heterodimer in vitro. Here, we detected the heterodimerization of Mac-1 subunits in living cells by means of two fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) techniques (fluorescence microscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy) and our results demonstrated that there is constitutive heterodimerization of the Mac-1 subunits and this constitutive heterodimerization of the Mac-1 subunits is cell-type independent. Through FRET imaging, we found that heterodimers of Mac-1 mainly localized in plasma membrane, perinuclear, and Golgi area in living cells. Furthermore, through analysis of the estimated physical distances between cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) and yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) fused to Mac-1 subunits, we suggested that the conformation of Mac-1 subunits is not affected by the fusion of CFP or YFP and inferred that Mac-1 subunits take different conformation when expressed in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) and human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293T cells, respectively

  9. Naphthalene-based fluorescent probes for glutathione and their applications in living cells and patients with sepsis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jun; Kwon, Younghee; Chung, Kyung Soo; Lim, Chang Su; Lee, Dayoung; Yue, Yongkang; Yoon, Jisoo; Kim, Gyoungmi; Nam, Sang-Jip; Chung, Youn Wook; Kim, Hwan Myung; Yin, Caixia; Ryu, Ji-Hwan; Yoon, Juyoung

    2018-01-01

    Rationale: Among the biothiols-related diseases, sepsis is defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection and can result in severe oxidative stress and damage to multiple organs. In this study, we aimed to develop a fluorescence chemosensor that can both detect GSH and further predict sepsis. Methods: In this study, two new naphthalene dialdehyde compounds containing different functional groups were synthesized, and the sensing abilities of these compounds towards biothiols and its applications for prediction of sepsis were investigated. Results: Our study revealed that the newly developed probe 6-methoxynaphthalene-2, 3-dicarbaldehyde (MNDA) has two-photon is capable of detecting GSH in live cells with two-photon microscopy (TPM) under the excitation at a wavelength of 900 nm. Furthermore, two GSH detection probes naphthalene-2,3-dicarboxaldehyde (NDA) and 6-fluoronaphthalene-2,3-dicarbaldehyde (FNDA) not only can detect GSH in living cells, but also showed clinical significance for the diagnosis and prediction of mortality in patients with sepsis. Conclusions: These results open up a promising direction for further medical diagnostic techniques. PMID:29507630

  10. Cationic Organochalcogen with Monomer/Excimer Emissions for Dual-Color Live Cell Imaging and Cell Damage Diagnosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chao, Xi-Juan; Wang, Kang-Nan; Sun, Li-Li; Cao, Qian; Ke, Zhuo-Feng; Cao, Du-Xia; Mao, Zong-Wan

    2018-04-25

    Studies on the development of fluorescent organic molecules with different emission colors for imaging of organelles and their biomedical application are gaining lots of focus recently. Here, we report two cationic organochalcogens 1 and 2, both of which exhibit very weak green emission (Φ 1 = 0.12%; Φ 2 = 0.09%) in dilute solution as monomers, but remarkably enhanced green emission upon interaction with nucleic acids and large red-shifted emission in aggregate state by the formation of excimers at high concentration. More interestingly, the monomer emission and excimer-like emission can be used for dual color imaging of different organelles. Upon passively diffusing into cells, both probes selectively stain nucleoli with strong green emission upon 488 nm excitation, whereas upon 405 nm excitation, a completely different stain pattern by staining lysosomes (for 1) or mitochondria (for 2) with distinct red emission is observed because of the highly concentrated accumulation in these organelles. Studies on the mechanism of the accumulation in lysosomes (for 1) or mitochondria (for 2) found that the accumulations of the probes are dependent on the membrane permeabilization, which make the probes have great potential in diagnosing cell damage by sensing lysosomal or mitochondrial membrane permeabilization. The study is demonstrative, for the first time, of two cationic molecules for dual-color imaging nucleoli and lysosomes (1)/mitochondria (2) simultaneously in live cell based on monomer and excimer-like emission, respectively, and more importantly, for diagnosing cell damage.

  11. Time-Lapse Monitoring of DNA Damage Colocalized With Particle Tracks in Single Living Cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    McFadden, Conor H. [Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (United States); Hallacy, Timothy M. [Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (United States); Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas (United States); Flint, David B. [Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (United States); Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Texas, Houston, Texas (United States); Granville, Dal A. [Department of Medical Physics, The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre, Ottawa, Ontario (Canada); Asaithamby, Aroumougame [Division of Molecular Radiation Biology, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas, Texas (United States); Sahoo, Narayan [Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (United States); Akselrod, Mark S. [Crystal Growth Division, Landauer, Inc, Stillwater, Oklahoma (United States); Sawakuchi, Gabriel O., E-mail: gsawakuchi@mdanderson.org [Department of Radiation Physics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas (United States); Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Texas, Houston, Texas (United States)

    2016-09-01

    Purpose: Understanding the DNA damage and repair induced by hadron therapy (HT) beams is crucial for developing novel strategies to maximize the use of HT beams to treat cancer patients. However, spatiotemporal studies of DNA damage and repair for beam energies relevant to HT have been challenging. We report a technique that enables spatiotemporal measurement of radiation-induced damage in live cells and colocalization of this damage with charged particle tracks over a broad range of clinically relevant beam energies. The technique uses novel fluorescence nuclear track detectors with fluorescence confocal laser scanning microscopy in the beam line to visualize particle track traversals within the subcellular compartments of live cells within seconds after injury. Methods and Materials: We designed and built a portable fluorescence confocal laser scanning microscope for use in the beam path, coated fluorescence nuclear track detectors with fluorescent-tagged live cells (HT1080 expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein tagged to XRCC1, a single-strand break repair protein), placed the entire assembly into a proton therapy beam line, and irradiated the cells with a fluence of ∼1 × 10{sup 6} protons/cm{sup 2}. Results: We successfully obtained confocal images of proton tracks and foci of DNA single-strand breaks immediately after irradiation. Conclusions: This technique represents an innovative method for analyzing biological responses in any HT beam line at energies and dose rates relevant to therapy. It allows precise determination of the number of tracks traversing a subcellular compartment and monitoring the cellular damage therein, and has the potential to measure the linear energy transfer of each track from therapeutic beams.

  12. A new image correction method for live cell atomic force microscopy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shen, Y; Sun, J L; Zhang, A; Hu, J; Xu, L X

    2007-01-01

    During live cell imaging via atomic force microscopy (AFM), the interactions between the AFM probe and the membrane yield distorted cell images. In this work, an image correction method was developed based on the force-distance curve and the modified Hertzian model. The normal loading and lateral forces exerted on the cell membrane by the AFM tip were both accounted for during the scanning. Two assumptions were made in modelling based on the experimental measurements: (1) the lateral force on the endothelial cells was linear to the height; (2) the cell membrane Young's modulus could be derived from the displacement measurement of a normal force curve. Results have shown that the model could be used to recover up to 30% of the actual cell height depending on the loading force. The accuracy of the model was also investigated with respect to the loading force and mechanical property of the cell membrane

  13. Long-lived tissue resident HIV-1 specific memory CD8+ T cells are generated by skin immunization with live virus vectored microneedle arrays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaric, Marija; Becker, Pablo Daniel; Hervouet, Catherine; Kalcheva, Petya; Ibarzo Yus, Barbara; Cocita, Clement; O'Neill, Lauren Alexandra; Kwon, Sung-Yun; Klavinskis, Linda Sylvia

    2017-12-28

    The generation of tissue resident memory (T RM ) cells at the body surfaces to provide a front line defence against invading pathogens represents an important goal in vaccine development for a wide variety of pathogens. It has been widely assumed that local vaccine delivery to the mucosae is necessary to achieve that aim. Here we characterise a novel micro-needle array (MA) delivery system fabricated to deliver a live recombinant human adenovirus type 5 vaccine vector (AdHu5) encoding HIV-1 gag. We demonstrate rapid dissolution kinetics of the microneedles in skin. Moreover, a consequence of MA vaccine cargo release was the generation of long-lived antigen-specific CD8 + T cells that accumulate in mucosal tissues, including the female genital and respiratory tract. The memory CD8 + T cell population maintained in the peripheral mucosal tissues was attributable to a MA delivered AdHu5 vaccine instructing CD8 + T cell expression of CXCR3 + , CD103 +, CD49a + , CD69 + , CD127 + homing, retention and survival markers. Furthermore, memory CD8 + T cells generated by MA immunization significantly expanded upon locally administered antigenic challenge and showed a predominant poly-functional profile producing high levels of IFNγ and Granzyme B. These data demonstrate that skin vaccine delivery using microneedle technology induces mobilization of long lived, poly-functional CD8 + T cells to peripheral tissues, phenotypically displaying hallmarks of residency and yields new insights into how to design and deliver effective vaccine candidates with properties to exert local immunosurveillance at the mucosal surfaces. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Differences in the origins of kinetochore-positive and kinetochore-negative micronuclei: A live cell imaging study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jiang, Erkang, E-mail: erkangj@ustc.edu.cn

    2016-05-15

    Highlights: • Most Kinetochore-negative micronuclei were derived from kinetochore-negative displaced chromosomes, kinetochore-negative lagging chromosomes and fragments of broken chromosome bridges in mitosis of MN-free cells. • Most Kinetochore-positive micronuclei were derived from kinetochore-positive displaced chromosomes, kinetochore-positive lagging chromosomes and fragments of broken chromosome bridges in mitosis of MN-free cells. • Kinetochore-positive lagging chromosomes developed into kinetochore-positive micronuclei at the higher frequency than kinetochore-positive displaced chromosomes, kinetochore-negative lagging chromosomes developed into kinetochore-negative micronuclei at the higher rate than kinetochore-negative displaced chromosomes and broken chromosome bridges produced K−MNi and/or K+MNi. - Abstract: Micronuclei (MNi) are extensively used to evaluate genotoxicity and chromosomal instability. Classification of kinetochore-negative (K−MNi) and kinetochore-positive micronuclei (K+MNi) improves the specificity and sensitivity of the micronucleus (MN) test; however, the fundamental differences in the origins of K−MNi and K+MNi have not been addressed due to the limitations of traditional methods. In the current study, HeLa CENP B-GFP H2B-mCherry cells were constructed in which histone 2B (H2B) and centromere protein B (CENP B) were expressed as fusion proteins to monomeric Cherry (mCherry) and EGFP, respectively. MNi were identified using H2B-mCherry; K+MN contained CENP B-GFP, while K−MN did not. Long-term live cell imaging was conducted to examine MN formation in the dual-color fluorescent HeLa cells. The results suggested that K−MNi were derived from kinetochore-negative displaced chromosomes (K−DCs), kinetochore-negative lagging chromosomes (K−LCs) and fragments of broken chromosome bridges (CBs) during late mitotic stages. The results also indicated that K+MNi are derived from kinetochore-positive displaced chromosomes (K

  15. Differences in the origins of kinetochore-positive and kinetochore-negative micronuclei: A live cell imaging study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jiang, Erkang

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Most Kinetochore-negative micronuclei were derived from kinetochore-negative displaced chromosomes, kinetochore-negative lagging chromosomes and fragments of broken chromosome bridges in mitosis of MN-free cells. • Most Kinetochore-positive micronuclei were derived from kinetochore-positive displaced chromosomes, kinetochore-positive lagging chromosomes and fragments of broken chromosome bridges in mitosis of MN-free cells. • Kinetochore-positive lagging chromosomes developed into kinetochore-positive micronuclei at the higher frequency than kinetochore-positive displaced chromosomes, kinetochore-negative lagging chromosomes developed into kinetochore-negative micronuclei at the higher rate than kinetochore-negative displaced chromosomes and broken chromosome bridges produced K−MNi and/or K+MNi. - Abstract: Micronuclei (MNi) are extensively used to evaluate genotoxicity and chromosomal instability. Classification of kinetochore-negative (K−MNi) and kinetochore-positive micronuclei (K+MNi) improves the specificity and sensitivity of the micronucleus (MN) test; however, the fundamental differences in the origins of K−MNi and K+MNi have not been addressed due to the limitations of traditional methods. In the current study, HeLa CENP B-GFP H2B-mCherry cells were constructed in which histone 2B (H2B) and centromere protein B (CENP B) were expressed as fusion proteins to monomeric Cherry (mCherry) and EGFP, respectively. MNi were identified using H2B-mCherry; K+MN contained CENP B-GFP, while K−MN did not. Long-term live cell imaging was conducted to examine MN formation in the dual-color fluorescent HeLa cells. The results suggested that K−MNi were derived from kinetochore-negative displaced chromosomes (K−DCs), kinetochore-negative lagging chromosomes (K−LCs) and fragments of broken chromosome bridges (CBs) during late mitotic stages. The results also indicated that K+MNi are derived from kinetochore-positive displaced chromosomes (K

  16. Live cell imaging at the Munich ion microbeam SNAKE – a status report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Drexler, Guido A; Siebenwirth, Christian; Drexler, Sophie E; Girst, Stefanie; Greubel, Christoph; Dollinger, Günther; Friedl, Anna A

    2015-01-01

    Ion microbeams are important tools in radiobiological research. Still, the worldwide number of ion microbeam facilities where biological experiments can be performed is limited. Even fewer facilities combine ion microirradiation with live-cell imaging to allow microscopic observation of cellular response reactions starting very fast after irradiation and continuing for many hours. At SNAKE, the ion microbeam facility at the Munich 14 MV tandem accelerator, a large variety of biological experiments are performed on a regular basis. Here, recent developments and ongoing research projects at the ion microbeam SNAKE are presented with specific emphasis on live-cell imaging experiments. An overview of the technical details of the setup is given, including examples of suitable biological samples. By ion beam focusing to submicrometer beam spot size and single ion detection it is possible to target subcellular structures with defined numbers of ions. Focusing of high numbers of ions to single spots allows studying the influence of high local damage density on recruitment of damage response proteins. The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13014-015-0350-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

  17. Reproducible fashion of the HSP70B' promoter-induced cytotoxic response on a live cell-based biosensor by cell cycle synchronization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Migita, Satoshi; Wada, Ken-Ichi; Taniguchi, Akiyoshi

    2010-10-15

    Live cell-based sensors potentially provide functional information about the cytotoxic effect of reagents on various signaling cascades. Cells transfected with a reporter vector derived from a cytotoxic response promoter can be used as intelligent cytotoxicity sensors (i.e., sensor cells). We have combined sensor cells and a microfluidic cell culture system that can achieve several laminar flows, resulting in a reliable high-throughput cytotoxicity detection system. These sensor cells can also be applied to single cell arrays. However, it is difficult to detect a cellular response in a single cell array, due to the heterogeneous response of sensor cells. The objective of this study was cell homogenization with cell cycle synchronization to enhance the response of cell-based biosensors. Our previously established stable sensor cells were brought into cell cycle synchronization under serum-starved conditions and we then investigated the cadmium chloride-induced cytotoxic response at the single cell level. The GFP positive rate of synchronized cells was approximately twice as high as that of the control cells, suggesting that cell homogenization is an important step when using cell-based biosensors with microdevices, such as a single cell array. Copyright 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  18. N-way FRET microscopy of multiple protein-protein interactions in live cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adam D Hoppe

    Full Text Available Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET microscopy has emerged as a powerful tool to visualize nanoscale protein-protein interactions while capturing their microscale organization and millisecond dynamics. Recently, FRET microscopy was extended to imaging of multiple donor-acceptor pairs, thereby enabling visualization of multiple biochemical events within a single living cell. These methods require numerous equations that must be defined on a case-by-case basis. Here, we present a universal multispectral microscopy method (N-Way FRET to enable quantitative imaging for any number of interacting and non-interacting FRET pairs. This approach redefines linear unmixing to incorporate the excitation and emission couplings created by FRET, which cannot be accounted for in conventional linear unmixing. Experiments on a three-fluorophore system using blue, yellow and red fluorescent proteins validate the method in living cells. In addition, we propose a simple linear algebra scheme for error propagation from input data to estimate the uncertainty in the computed FRET images. We demonstrate the strength of this approach by monitoring the oligomerization of three FP-tagged HIV Gag proteins whose tight association in the viral capsid is readily observed. Replacement of one FP-Gag molecule with a lipid raft-targeted FP allowed direct observation of Gag oligomerization with no association between FP-Gag and raft-targeted FP. The N-Way FRET method provides a new toolbox for capturing multiple molecular processes with high spatial and temporal resolution in living cells.

  19. Live cell plasma membranes do not exhibit a miscibility phase transition over a wide range of temperatures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Il-Hyung; Saha, Suvrajit; Polley, Anirban; Huang, Hector; Mayor, Satyajit; Rao, Madan; Groves, Jay T

    2015-03-26

    Lipid/cholesterol mixtures derived from cell membranes as well as their synthetic reconstitutions exhibit well-defined miscibility phase transitions and critical phenomena near physiological temperatures. This suggests that lipid/cholesterol-mediated phase separation plays a role in the organization of live cell membranes. However, macroscopic lipid-phase separation is not generally observed in cell membranes, and the degree to which properties of isolated lipid mixtures are preserved in the cell membrane remain unknown. A fundamental property of phase transitions is that the variation of tagged particle diffusion with temperature exhibits an abrupt change as the system passes through the transition, even when the two phases are distributed in a nanometer-scale emulsion. We support this using a variety of Monte Carlo and atomistic simulations on model lipid membrane systems. However, temperature-dependent fluorescence correlation spectroscopy of labeled lipids and membrane-anchored proteins in live cell membranes shows a consistently smooth increase in the diffusion coefficient as a function of temperature. We find no evidence of a discrete miscibility phase transition throughout a wide range of temperatures: 14-37 °C. This contrasts the behavior of giant plasma membrane vesicles (GPMVs) blebbed from the same cells, which do exhibit phase transitions and macroscopic phase separation. Fluorescence lifetime analysis of a DiI probe in both cases reveals a significant environmental difference between the live cell and the GPMV. Taken together, these data suggest the live cell membrane may avoid the miscibility phase transition inherent to its lipid constituents by actively regulating physical parameters, such as tension, in the membrane.

  20. The magnetic introduction of magnetite nanoparticles into live cells for radiosensibility enhancement

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yurenya, Anton Y., E-mail: antonyurenya@gmail.com [National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, Moscow (Russian Federation); Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow (Russian Federation); Polikarpov, Mikhail A. [National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, Moscow (Russian Federation); Chukalova, Aynur A. [National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, Moscow (Russian Federation); Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow (Russian Federation); Moskaleva, Elizaveta Y.; Taldenkov, Alexander N. [National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, Moscow (Russian Federation); Panchenko, Vladislav Y. [National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, Moscow (Russian Federation); Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow (Russian Federation)

    2017-04-01

    Earlier we proposed a new radiotherapy enhancement method that entails the administration of {sup 57}Fe iron-oxide nanoparticles into the cells . Within this work we were prompt to investigate the capability of iron oxide nanoparticles with monolayer coating to penetrate into live cells. Magnetite particle samples were synthesized and stabilized with HCl or citric acid. The cells were incubated in the presence of nanoparticles for 1 h, washed and dried. To distinguish inside-cell particles from outside ones a set of experiments with low temperature incubation was carried out. Several cell samples were prepared in the presence of an external magnetic field in order to study the possibility of the nanoparticle uptake enhancement. To evaluate the amount of particles in each cell sample we used a SQUID-magnetometer. The nanoparticle suspension with HCl stabilization turned to be inadequate for intracellular introduction. Approximately 2·10{sup 5} particles with citric acid covering conjugated with each cell after incubation at normal conditions. An application of an external magnetic field increased this amount up to 10{sup 7} particles/cell. Most probably much of these particles penetrated into cells. - Highlights: • Uncoated magnetite nanoparticle suspension is unusable for intracellular introduction. • Magnetite particles stabilized with citric acid penetrate into cells via endocytosis. • An application of a magnetic field enhances cellular uptake of magnetite particles. • The amount of particles in cell samples can be evaluated with a SQUID-magnetometer.

  1. Turn-on fluorescence chemosensor for fluoride ions and its applicability in imaging of living cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ponnuvel, Kandasamy; Padmini, Vediappen, E-mail: padimini_tamilenthi@yahoo.co.in

    2016-01-15

    The study was easy to prepare fluorescent chemosensor, the urea based triphenylamine conjugated ligand and structurally simple anion probes displayed great selectivity for the fluoride anion over other anions in an aqueous tetrahydrofuran solution. The probe was characterized using NMR spectroscopy, UV–visible, emission spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The sensor showed spectral shifts and intensity changes in the presence of fluoride anions. The Job’s plot analysis indicates that the binding stoichiometry to be 1:1. Furthermore, by means of confocal fluorescent microscopy experiments, it has been demonstrated that it can be used as a fluorescent probe for monitoring fluoride ions in the living cells. - Highlights: • A novel fluorescent chemosensor for the detection of F{sup −} anions. • Detection of F{sup −} anions can be performed in water at pH=7.4. • The chemosensor could be efficiently delivered to live cells for bioimaging of F{sup −}.

  2. Live-cell imaging of conidial anastomosis tube fusion during colony initiation in Fusarium oxysporum.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Smija M Kurian

    Full Text Available Fusarium oxysporum exhibits conidial anastomosis tube (CAT fusion during colony initiation to form networks of conidial germlings. Here we determined the optimal culture conditions for this fungus to undergo CAT fusion between microconidia in liquid medium. Extensive high resolution, confocal live-cell imaging was performed to characterise the different stages of CAT fusion, using genetically encoded fluorescent labelling and vital fluorescent organelle stains. CAT homing and fusion were found to be dependent on adhesion to the surface, in contrast to germ tube development which occurs in the absence of adhesion. Staining with fluorescently labelled concanavalin A indicated that the cell wall composition of CATs differs from that of microconidia and germ tubes. The movement of nuclei, mitochondria, vacuoles and lipid droplets through fused germlings was observed by live-cell imaging.

  3. Combination of Small Molecule Microarray and Confocal Microscopy Techniques for Live Cell Staining Fluorescent Dye Discovery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Attila Bokros

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Discovering new fluorochromes is significantly advanced by high-throughput screening (HTS methods. In the present study a combination of small molecule microarray (SMM prescreening and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM was developed in order to discover novel cell staining fluorescent dyes. Compounds with high native fluorescence were selected from a 14,585-member library and further tested on living cells under the microscope. Eleven compartment-specific, cell-permeable (or plasma membrane-targeted fluorochromes were identified. Their cytotoxicity was tested and found that between 1–10 micromolar range, they were non-toxic even during long-term incubations.

  4. Quantitative determination of optical trapping strength and viscoelastic moduli inside living cells

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mas, Josep; Richardson, Andrew Callum; Reihani, S. Nader S.

    2013-01-01

    is viscoelastic, it would be incorrect to use a calibration procedure relying on a viscous environment. Here we demonstrate a method to perform a correct force calibration inside a living cell. This method (theoretically proposed in Fischer and Berg-Sørensen (2007 J. Opt. A: Pure Appl. Opt. 9 S239)) takes......With the success of in vitro single-molecule force measurements obtained in recent years, the next step is to perform quantitative force measurements inside a living cell. Optical traps have proven excellent tools for manipulation, also in vivo, where they can be essentially non-invasive under...... correct wavelength and exposure conditions. It is a pre-requisite for in vivo quantitative force measurements that a precise and reliable force calibration of the tweezers is performed. There are well-established calibration protocols in purely viscous environments; however, as the cellular cytoplasm...

  5. Near-IR Two-Photon Fluorescent Sensor for K(+) Imaging in Live Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sui, Binglin; Yue, Xiling; Kim, Bosung; Belfield, Kevin D

    2015-08-19

    A new two-photon excited fluorescent K(+) sensor is reported. The sensor comprises three moieties, a highly selective K(+) chelator as the K(+) recognition unit, a boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) derivative modified with phenylethynyl groups as the fluorophore, and two polyethylene glycol chains to afford water solubility. The sensor displays very high selectivity (>52-fold) in detecting K(+) over other physiological metal cations. Upon binding K(+), the sensor switches from nonfluorescent to highly fluorescent, emitting red to near-IR (NIR) fluorescence. The sensor exhibited a good two-photon absorption cross section, 500 GM at 940 nm. Moreover, it is not sensitive to pH in the physiological pH range. Time-dependent cell imaging studies via both one- and two-photon fluorescence microscopy demonstrate that the sensor is suitable for dynamic K(+) sensing in living cells.

  6. Quantification of the number of EP3 receptors on a living CHO cell surface by the AFM

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Hyonchol; Arakawa, Hideo; Hatae, Noriyuki; Sugimoto, Yukihiko; Matsumoto, Osamu; Osada, Toshiya; Ichikawa, Atsushi; Ikai, Atsushi

    2006-01-01

    The distribution of EP3 receptors on a living cell surface was quantitatively studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Green fluorescent protein (GFP) was introduced to the extracellular region of the EP3 receptor on a CHO cell. A microbead was used as a probe to ensure certain contact area, whose surface was coated with anti-GFP antibody. The interactions between the antibodies and GFP molecules on the cell surface were recorded to observe the distribution of the receptors. The result indicated that EP3 receptors were distributed on the CHO cell surface not uniformly but in small patches coincident with immunohistochemical observation. Repeated measurements on the same area of cell surface gave confirmation that it was unlikely that the receptors were extracted from the cell membrane during the experiments. The measurement of single molecular interaction between GFP and the anti-GFP antibody was succeeded on the cell surface using compression-free force spectroscopy. The value of separation work required to break a single molecular pair was estimated to be about 1.5x10 -18 J. The number of EP3 receptor on the CHO cell surface was estimated using this value to be about 1x10 4 under the assumption that the area of the cell surface was about 5000 μm 2 . These results indicated that the number of receptors on a living cell surface could be quantified through the force measurement by the AFM

  7. Caveolae-mediated endocytosis of biocompatible gold nanoparticles in living Hela cells

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hao, Xian; Wu, Jiazhen; Shan, Yuping

    2012-01-01

    the internalization mechanism of small-size AuNPs by living Hela cells. Herein, we found that the caveolae-mediated endocytosis was the dominant pathway for the intracellular delivery of small-size AuNPs. The intracellular delivery was suppressed when we depleted the cholesterol with methyl-β-cyclodextrin (M beta CD...

  8. Sorting live stem cells based on Sox2 mRNA expression.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hans M Larsson

    Full Text Available While cell sorting usually relies on cell-surface protein markers, molecular beacons (MBs offer the potential to sort cells based on the presence of any expressed mRNA and in principle could be extremely useful to sort rare cell populations from primary isolates. We show here how stem cells can be purified from mixed cell populations by sorting based on MBs. Specifically, we designed molecular beacons targeting Sox2, a well-known stem cell marker for murine embryonic (mES and neural stem cells (NSC. One of our designed molecular beacons displayed an increase in fluorescence compared to a nonspecific molecular beacon both in vitro and in vivo when tested in mES and NSCs. We sorted Sox2-MB(+SSEA1(+ cells from a mixed population of 4-day retinoic acid-treated mES cells and effectively isolated live undifferentiated stem cells. Additionally, Sox2-MB(+ cells isolated from primary mouse brains were sorted and generated neurospheres with higher efficiency than Sox2-MB(- cells. These results demonstrate the utility of MBs for stem cell sorting in an mRNA-specific manner.

  9. Cytogenetical study of different groups of children living in Bryansk region areas contaminated after the Chernobyl accident

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Khandogina, E.K.; Agejkin, V.A.; Zvereva, S.V.; AN SSSR, Moscow

    1995-01-01

    The frequency of chromosome aberrations (CA) was studied in peripheral blood lymphocytes from healthy children and children with thyreopathology living in the city of Klincy, Bryansk region (contamination level up to 5 Ci/km 2 ), and two Moscow groups, respectively. We have observed the elevated number of dicentrics and acentric fragments in cell from children with thyreopathology with respect from healthy children living in Klincy. This fact cannot be explained by influence of disease because there was no difference in cytogenetical markers between the groups of healthy children and children with thyreopathology from Moscow. The number of dicentrics was increased in cells from children with high level of internal contamination (more than 400 nCi) living in Krasnaya Gora (15-40 Ci/km 2 ). It is proposed that the internal irradiation is more important for the CA induction. The symmetrical translocation analysis using the method of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has shown the absence of this type of aberrations in cells from children with high level of internal irradiation whereas the translocations frequency in cells from control children was (1.1±0.4) per 1000 cells. 19 refs., 2 figs., 3 tabs

  10. Live cell imaging compatible immobilization of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in microfluidic platform for biodiesel research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Jae Woo; Na, Sang Cheol; Nguyen, Thanh Qua; Paik, Sang-Min; Kang, Myeongwoo; Hong, Daewha; Choi, Insung S; Lee, Jae-Hyeok; Jeon, Noo Li

    2015-03-01

    This paper describes a novel surface immobilization method for live-cell imaging of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii for continuous monitoring of lipid droplet accumulation. Microfluidics allows high-throughput manipulation and analysis of single cells in precisely controlled microenvironment. Fluorescence imaging based quantitative measurement of lipid droplet accumulation in microalgae had been difficult due to their intrinsic motile behavior. We present a simple surface immobilization method using gelatin coating as the "biological glue." We take advantage of hydroxyproline (Hyp)-based non-covalent interaction between gelatin and the outer cell wall of microalgae to anchor the cells inside the microfluidic device. We have continuously monitored single microalgal cells for up to 6 days. The immobilized microalgae remain viable (viability was comparable to bulk suspension cultured controls). When exposed to wall shear stress, most of the cells remain attached up to 0.1 dyne/cm(2) . Surface immobilization allowed high-resolution, live-cell imaging of mitotic process in real time-which followed previously reported stages in mitosis of suspension cultured cells. Use of gelatin coated microfluidics devices can result in better methods for microalgae strain screening and culture condition optimization that will help microalgal biodiesel become more economically viable. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  11. New Insights into HTLV-1 Particle Structure, Assembly, and Gag-Gag Interactions in Living Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jolene L. Johnson

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1 has a reputation for being extremely difficult to study in cell culture. The challenges in propagating HTLV-1 has prevented a rigorous analysis of how these viruses replicate in cells, including the detailed steps involved in virus assembly. The details for how retrovirus particle assembly occurs are poorly understood, even for other more tractable retroviral systems. Recent studies on HTLV-1 using state-of-the-art cryo-electron microscopy and fluorescence-based biophysical approaches explored questions related to HTLV-1 particle size, Gag stoichiometry in virions, and Gag-Gag interactions in living cells. These results provided new and exciting insights into fundamental aspects of HTLV-1 particle assembly—which are distinct from those of other retroviruses, including HIV-1. The application of these and other novel biophysical approaches promise to provide exciting new insights into HTLV-1 replication.

  12. A new image correction method for live cell atomic force microscopy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shen, Y; Sun, J L; Zhang, A; Hu, J; Xu, L X [College of Life Science and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030 (China)

    2007-04-21

    During live cell imaging via atomic force microscopy (AFM), the interactions between the AFM probe and the membrane yield distorted cell images. In this work, an image correction method was developed based on the force-distance curve and the modified Hertzian model. The normal loading and lateral forces exerted on the cell membrane by the AFM tip were both accounted for during the scanning. Two assumptions were made in modelling based on the experimental measurements: (1) the lateral force on the endothelial cells was linear to the height; (2) the cell membrane Young's modulus could be derived from the displacement measurement of a normal force curve. Results have shown that the model could be used to recover up to 30% of the actual cell height depending on the loading force. The accuracy of the model was also investigated with respect to the loading force and mechanical property of the cell membrane.

  13. Deciphering the internal complexity of living cells with quantitative phase microscopy: a multiscale approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinez-Torres, Cristina; Laperrousaz, Bastien; Berguiga, Lotfi; Boyer-Provera, Elise; Elezgaray, Juan; Nicolini, Franck E.; Maguer-Satta, Veronique; Arneodo, Alain; Argoul, Françoise

    2015-09-01

    The distribution of refractive indices (RIs) of a living cell contributes in a nonintuitive manner to its optical phase image and quite rarely can be inverted to recover its internal structure. The interpretation of the quantitative phase images of living cells remains a difficult task because (1) we still have very little knowledge on the impact of its internal macromolecular complexes on the local RI and (2) phase changes produced by light propagation through the sample are mixed with diffraction effects by the internal cell bodies. We propose to implement a two-dimensional wavelet-based contour chain detection method to distinguish internal boundaries based on their greatest optical path difference gradients. These contour chains correspond to the highest image phase contrast and follow the local RI inhomogeneities linked to the intracellular structural intricacy. Their statistics and spatial distribution are the morphological indicators suited for comparing cells of different origins and/or to follow their transformation in pathologic situations. We use this method to compare nonadherent blood cells from primary and laboratory culture origins and to assess the internal transformation of hematopoietic stem cells by the transduction of the BCR-ABL oncogene responsible for the chronic myelogenous leukemia.

  14. Multimodality imaging of reporter gene expression using a novel fusion vector in living cells and animals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gambhir, Sanjiv [Portola Valley, CA; Pritha, Ray [Mountain View, CA

    2011-06-07

    Novel double and triple fusion reporter gene constructs harboring distinct imagable reporter genes are provided, as well as applications for the use of such double and triple fusion constructs in living cells and in living animals using distinct imaging technologies.

  15. A Molecular Probe for the Detection of Polar Lipids in Live Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bader, Christie A; Shandala, Tetyana; Carter, Elizabeth A; Ivask, Angela; Guinan, Taryn; Hickey, Shane M; Werrett, Melissa V; Wright, Phillip J; Simpson, Peter V; Stagni, Stefano; Voelcker, Nicolas H; Lay, Peter A; Massi, Massimiliano; Plush, Sally E; Brooks, Douglas A

    2016-01-01

    Lipids have an important role in many aspects of cell biology, including membrane architecture/compartment formation, intracellular traffic, signalling, hormone regulation, inflammation, energy storage and metabolism. Lipid biology is therefore integrally involved in major human diseases, including metabolic disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, obesity, heart disease, immune disorders and cancers, which commonly display altered lipid transport and metabolism. However, the investigation of these important cellular processes has been limited by the availability of specific tools to visualise lipids in live cells. Here we describe the potential for ReZolve-L1™ to localise to intracellular compartments containing polar lipids, such as for example sphingomyelin and phosphatidylethanolamine. In live Drosophila fat body tissue from third instar larvae, ReZolve-L1™ interacted mainly with lipid droplets, including the core region of these organelles. The presence of polar lipids in the core of these lipid droplets was confirmed by Raman mapping and while this was consistent with the distribution of ReZolve-L1™ it did not exclude that the molecular probe might be detecting other lipid species. In response to complete starvation conditions, ReZolve-L1™ was detected mainly in Atg8-GFP autophagic compartments, and showed reduced staining in the lipid droplets of fat body cells. The induction of autophagy by Tor inhibition also increased ReZolve-L1™ detection in autophagic compartments, whereas Atg9 knock down impaired autophagosome formation and altered the distribution of ReZolve-L1™. Finally, during Drosophila metamorphosis fat body tissues showed increased ReZolve-L1™ staining in autophagic compartments at two hours post puparium formation, when compared to earlier developmental time points. We concluded that ReZolve-L1™ is a new live cell imaging tool, which can be used as an imaging reagent for the detection of polar lipids in different intracellular

  16. Direct observation of the effects of cellulose synthesis inhibitors using live cell imaging of Cellulose Synthase (CESA) in Physcomitrella patens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tran, Mai L; McCarthy, Thomas W; Sun, Hao; Wu, Shu-Zon; Norris, Joanna H; Bezanilla, Magdalena; Vidali, Luis; Anderson, Charles T; Roberts, Alison W

    2018-01-15

    Results from live cell imaging of fluorescently tagged Cellulose Synthase (CESA) proteins in Cellulose Synthesis Complexes (CSCs) have enhanced our understanding of cellulose biosynthesis, including the mechanisms of action of cellulose synthesis inhibitors. However, this method has been applied only in Arabidopsis thaliana and Brachypodium distachyon thus far. Results from freeze fracture electron microscopy of protonemal filaments of the moss Funaria hygrometrica indicate that a cellulose synthesis inhibitor, 2,6-dichlorobenzonitrile (DCB), fragments CSCs and clears them from the plasma membrane. This differs from Arabidopsis, in which DCB causes CSC accumulation in the plasma membrane and a different cellulose synthesis inhibitor, isoxaben, clears CSCs from the plasma membrane. In this study, live cell imaging of the moss Physcomitrella patens indicated that DCB and isoxaben have little effect on protonemal growth rates, and that only DCB causes tip rupture. Live cell imaging of mEGFP-PpCESA5 and mEGFP-PpCESA8 showed that DCB and isoxaben substantially reduced CSC movement, but had no measureable effect on CSC density in the plasma membrane. These results suggest that DCB and isoxaben have similar effects on CSC movement in P. patens and Arabidopsis, but have different effects on CSC intracellular trafficking, cell growth and cell integrity in these divergent plant lineages.

  17. Cytoskeletal-assisted dynamics of the mitochondrial reticulum in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Knowles, Michelle K; Guenza, Marina G; Capaldi, Roderick A; Marcus, Andrew H

    2002-11-12

    Subcellular organelle dynamics are strongly influenced by interactions with cytoskeletal filaments and their associated motor proteins, and lead to complex multiexponential relaxations that occur over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Here we report spatio-temporal measurements of the fluctuations of the mitochondrial reticulum in osteosarcoma cells by using Fourier imaging correlation spectroscopy, over time and distance scales of 10(-2) to 10(3) s and 0.5-2.5 microm. We show that the method allows a more complete description of mitochondrial dynamics, through the time- and length-scale-dependent collective diffusion coefficient D(k,tau), than available by other means. Addition of either nocodazole to disrupt microtubules or cytochalasin D to disassemble microfilaments simplifies the intermediate scattering function. When both drugs are used, the reticulum morphology of mitochondria is retained even though the cytoskeletal elements have been de-polymerized. The dynamics of the organelle are then primarily diffusive and can be modeled as a collection of friction points interconnected by elastic springs. This study quantitatively characterizes organelle dynamics in terms of collective cytoskeletal interactions in living cells.

  18. Antigen modulation of the immune response. III. Evaluation of the hypothetical short-lived memory cell

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Feldbush, T.L.; Lande, I.; Bryan, B.; O'Neill, E.

    1974-01-01

    The putative short-lived memory cells, whose existence has been suggested by the results of secondary adoptive transfer experiments, were investigated. On the basis of the following evidences we have concluded that the short-lived memory cell is probably an artifact of the adoptive transfer technique: when immune thoracic duct lymphocytes, known to consist predominantly of long-lived memory cells, were transferred to irradiated recipients and challenged at various times after transfer, approximately 80 to 90 percent of the initial response was absent by Day 14 challenge; preirradiating adoptive recipients with increasing dose of x-irradiation tended to lengthen the observed half life of memory cells; single or multiple treatments of immune donors with 0.3 mg Vinblastin before transfer resulted in neither a depression of the initial secondary response nor an alteration in the rate of decline of the memory potential; reconstitution of irradiated hosts with normal spleen cells one day before transfer of memory cells and challenge resulted in inhibition of the adoptive secondary response; and the transfer of memory cells to antigen free intermediate hosts, in which they were allowed to reside for one day or fourteen days before transfer to irradiated recipients, resulted in only a slight decline in their capacity to respond. We propose that the rapid decline of memory potential in adoptive recipients challenged at various times after transfer is due to modulating effects by the hosts as it recovers from irradiation. These effects may be the result of cell crowding or the loss of irradiation-produced stimulatory factors. The relevance of these findings to adoptive transfer systems in general and the secondary response of intact animals is discussed

  19. Live cell imaging of cytosolic NADH/NAD+ ratio in hepatocytes and liver slices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masia, Ricard; McCarty, William J; Lahmann, Carolina; Luther, Jay; Chung, Raymond T; Yarmush, Martin L; Yellen, Gary

    2018-01-01

    Fatty liver disease (FLD), the most common chronic liver disease in the United States, may be caused by alcohol or the metabolic syndrome. Alcohol is oxidized in the cytosol of hepatocytes by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), which generates NADH and increases cytosolic NADH/NAD + ratio. The increased ratio may be important for development of FLD, but our ability to examine this question is hindered by methodological limitations. To address this, we used the genetically encoded fluorescent sensor Peredox to obtain dynamic, real-time measurements of cytosolic NADH/NAD + ratio in living hepatocytes. Peredox was expressed in dissociated rat hepatocytes and HepG2 cells by transfection, and in mouse liver slices by tail-vein injection of adeno-associated virus (AAV)-encoded sensor. Under control conditions, hepatocytes and liver slices exhibit a relatively low (oxidized) cytosolic NADH/NAD + ratio as reported by Peredox. The ratio responds rapidly and reversibly to substrates of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and sorbitol dehydrogenase (SDH). Ethanol causes a robust dose-dependent increase in cytosolic NADH/NAD + ratio, and this increase is mitigated by the presence of NAD + -generating substrates of LDH or SDH. In contrast to hepatocytes and slices, HepG2 cells exhibit a relatively high (reduced) ratio and show minimal responses to substrates of ADH and SDH. In slices, we show that comparable results are obtained with epifluorescence imaging and two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging (2p-FLIM). Live cell imaging with Peredox is a promising new approach to investigate cytosolic NADH/NAD + ratio in hepatocytes. Imaging in liver slices is particularly attractive because it allows preservation of liver microanatomy and metabolic zonation of hepatocytes. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We describe and validate a new approach for measuring free cytosolic NADH/NAD + ratio in hepatocytes and liver slices: live cell imaging with the fluorescent biosensor Peredox. This approach yields dynamic, real

  20. Chloroquine Analog Interaction with C2- and Iota-Toxin in Vitro and in Living Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kronhardt, Angelika; Beitzinger, Christoph; Barth, Holger; Benz, Roland

    2016-08-10

    C2-toxin from Clostridium botulinum and Iota-toxin from Clostridium perfringens belong both to the binary A-B-type of toxins consisting of two separately secreted components, an enzymatic subunit A and a binding component B that facilitates the entry of the corresponding enzymatic subunit into the target cells. The enzymatic subunits are in both cases actin ADP-ribosyltransferases that modify R177 of globular actin finally leading to cell death. Following their binding to host cells' receptors and internalization, the two binding components form heptameric channels in endosomal membranes which mediate the translocation of the enzymatic components Iota a and C2I from endosomes into the cytosol of the target cells. The binding components form ion-permeable channels in artificial and biological membranes. Chloroquine and related 4-aminoquinolines were able to block channel formation in vitro and intoxication of living cells. In this study, we extended our previous work to the use of different chloroquine analogs and demonstrate that positively charged aminoquinolinium salts are able to block channels formed in lipid bilayer membranes by the binding components of C2- and Iota-toxin. Similarly, these molecules protect cultured mammalian cells from intoxication with C2- and Iota-toxin. The aminoquinolinium salts did presumably not interfere with actin ADP-ribosylation or receptor binding but blocked the pores formed by C2IIa and Iota b in living cells and in vitro. The blocking efficiency of pores formed by Iota b and C2IIa by the chloroquine analogs showed interesting differences indicating structural variations between the types of protein-conducting nanochannels formed by Iota b and C2IIa.

  1. A G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) in red: live cell imaging of the kappa opioid receptor-tdTomato fusion protein (KOPR-tdT) in neuronal cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Peng; Chiu, Yi-Ting; Chen, Chongguang; Wang, Yujun; Liu-Chen, Lee-Yuan

    2013-01-01

    Introduction In contrast to green fluorescent protein and variants (GFPs), red fluorescent proteins (RFPs) have rarely been employed for generation of GPCR fusion proteins, likely because of formation of aggregates and cell toxicity of some RFPs. Among all the RFPs available, tdTomato (tdT), one of the non-aggregating RFP, has the highest brightness score (about 3 times that of eGFP) and unsurpassed photostability. Methods We fused tdT to the KOPR C-terminus. The KOPR-tdT cDNA construct was transfected into Neuro2A mouse neuroblastoma cell line (Neuro2A cells) and rat cortical primary neurons for characterization of pharmacological properties and imaging studies on KOPR trafficking. Results KOPR-tdT retained KOPR properties (cell surface expression, ligand binding, agonist-induced signaling and internalization) when expressed in Neuro2A cells and rat primary cortical neurons. Live cell imaging of KOPR-tdT enables visualization of time course of agonist-induced internalization of KOPR in real time for 60 min, without photobleaching and apparent cell toxicity. U50,488H-induced KOPR internalization occurred as early as 4 min and plateaued at about 30 min. A unique pattern of internalized KOPR in processes of primary neurons was induced by U50,488H. Discussion tdT is an alternative to, or even a better tool than, GFPs for fusing to GPCR for trafficking studies, because tdT has higher brightness and thus better resolution and less photobleaching problems due to reduced laser power used. It also has advantages associated with its longer-wavelength emission including spectral separation from autofluorescence and GFPs, reduced cell toxicity the laser may impose, and greater tissue penetration. These advantages of tdT over GPFs may be critical for live cell imaging studies of GPCRs in vitro and for studying GPCRs in vivo because of their low abundance. PMID:23856011

  2. An improved procedure for subcellular spatial alignment during live-cell CLEM.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Benjamin S Padman

    Full Text Available Live-cell correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM offers unique insights into the ultrastructure of dynamic cellular processes. A critical and technically challenging part of CLEM is the 3-dimensional relocation of the intracellular region of interest during sample processing. We have developed a simple CLEM procedure that uses toner particles from a laser printer as orientation marks. This facilitates easy tracking of a region of interest even by eye throughout the whole procedure. Combined with subcellular fluorescence markers for the plasma membrane and nucleus, the toner particles allow for precise subcellular spatial alignment of the optical and electron microscopy data sets. The toner-based reference grid is printed and transferred onto a polymer film using a standard office printer and laminator. We have also designed a polymer film holder that is compatible with most inverted microscopes, and have validated our strategy by following the ultrastructure of mitochondria that were selectively photo-irradiated during live-cell microscopy. In summary, our inexpensive and robust CLEM procedure simplifies optical imaging, without limiting the choice of optical microscope.

  3. An automated live imaging platform for studying merozoite egress-invasion in malaria cultures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crick, Alex J; Tiffert, Teresa; Shah, Sheel M; Kotar, Jurij; Lew, Virgilio L; Cicuta, Pietro

    2013-03-05

    Most cases of severe and fatal malaria are caused by the intraerythrocytic asexual reproduction cycle of Plasmodium falciparum. One of the most intriguing and least understood stages in this cycle is the brief preinvasion period during which dynamic merozoite-red-cell interactions align the merozoite apex in preparation for penetration. Studies of the molecular mechanisms involved in this process face formidable technical challenges, requiring multiple observations of merozoite egress-invasion sequences in live cultures under controlled experimental conditions, using high-resolution microscopy and a variety of fluorescent imaging tools. Here we describe a first successful step in the development of a fully automated, robotic imaging platform to enable such studies. Schizont-enriched live cultures of P. falciparum were set up on an inverted stage microscope with software-controlled motorized functions. By applying a variety of imaging filters and selection criteria, we identified infected red cells that were likely to rupture imminently, and recorded their coordinates. We developed a video-image analysis to detect and automatically record merozoite egress events in 100% of the 40 egress-invasion sequences recorded in this study. We observed a substantial polymorphism of the dynamic condition of pre-egress infected cells, probably reflecting asynchronies in the diversity of confluent processes leading to merozoite release. Copyright © 2013 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Femtosecond UV-laser pulses to unveil protein-protein interactions in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Itri, Francesco; Monti, Daria M; Della Ventura, Bartolomeo; Vinciguerra, Roberto; Chino, Marco; Gesuele, Felice; Lombardi, Angelina; Velotta, Raffaele; Altucci, Carlo; Birolo, Leila; Piccoli, Renata; Arciello, Angela

    2016-02-01

    A hallmark to decipher bioprocesses is to characterize protein-protein interactions in living cells. To do this, the development of innovative methodologies, which do not alter proteins and their natural environment, is particularly needed. Here, we report a method (LUCK, Laser UV Cross-linKing) to in vivo cross-link proteins by UV-laser irradiation of living cells. Upon irradiation of HeLa cells under controlled conditions, cross-linked products of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) were detected, whose yield was found to be a linear function of the total irradiation energy. We demonstrated that stable dimers of GAPDH were formed through intersubunit cross-linking, as also observed when the pure protein was irradiated by UV-laser in vitro. We proposed a defined patch of aromatic residues located at the enzyme subunit interface as the cross-linking sites involved in dimer formation. Hence, by this technique, UV-laser is able to photofix protein surfaces that come in direct contact. Due to the ultra-short time scale of UV-laser-induced cross-linking, this technique could be extended to weld even transient protein interactions in their native context.

  5. Calibration and quantification of fast intracellular motion (FIM) in living cells using correlation analysis

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Veselý, Pavel; Mikš, A.; Novák, J.; Boyde, A.

    2003-01-01

    Roč. 25, - (2003), s. 230-239 ISSN 0161-0457 R&D Projects: GA ČR GA304/99/0368 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z5052915 Keywords : fast intracellular motion * living cell ů video rate confocal laser scanning microscopy Subject RIV: EA - Cell Biology Impact factor: 0.733, year: 2003

  6. A NIR-remote controlled upconverting nanoparticle: an improved tool for living cell dye-labeling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zheng, Bin; Gong, Xiaoqun; Wang, Hanjie; Wang, Sheng; Chang, Jin; Wang, Huiquan; Li, Wei; Tan, Jian

    2015-01-01

    In living cells, due to the selective permeability and complicated cellular environment, the uptake efficiency and fluorescence decay of organic dyes during dye-labeling may be influenced, which may eventually result in poor fluorescent imaging. In this work, a protocol of UCNs@mSiO_2-(FA and Azo) core–shell nanocarriers was designed and prepared successfully. The core–shell nanocarriers were assembled from two parts, including a mesoporous silica shell surface modified by folate (FA) and azobenzene (Azo), and an upconverting nanocrystal (UCN) core. The mesoporous silica shell is used for loading organic dyes and conjugating folate which helps to enhance the cellular uptake of nanocarriers. The UCN core works as a transducer to convert near infrared (NIR) light to local UV and visible light to activate a back-and-forth wagging motion of azobenzene molecules on the surface, while the azobenzene acts as a molecular impeller for propelling the release of organic dyes. The nanocarriers of loading organic dyes can maintain the stability of the fluorescent imaging effect better than free organic dyes. The experimental results show that with the help of the nanoparticle, cell uptake efficiency of the model dyes of rhodamine and 4′, 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) was significantly improved. The release of dyes can only be triggered by NIR light exposure and their quantity is highly dependent on the duration of NIR light exposure, thus realizing NIR-regulated dye release spatiotemporally. Our work may open a novel avenue for precisely controlling UCN-based living cell imaging in biotechnology and diagnostics, as well as studying cell dynamics, cell–cell interactions, and tissue morphogenesis. (paper)

  7. Sets of RNA repeated tags and hybridization-sensitive fluorescent probes for distinct images of RNA in a living cell.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Takeshi Kubota

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Imaging the behavior of RNA in a living cell is a powerful means for understanding RNA functions and acquiring spatiotemporal information in a single cell. For more distinct RNA imaging in a living cell, a more effective chemical method to fluorescently label RNA is now required. In addition, development of the technology labeling with different colors for different RNA would make it easier to analyze plural RNA strands expressing in a cell. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Tag technology for RNA imaging in a living cell has been developed based on the unique chemical functions of exciton-controlled hybridization-sensitive oligonucleotide (ECHO probes. Repetitions of selected 18-nucleotide RNA tags were incorporated into the mRNA 3'-UTR. Pairs with complementary ECHO probes exhibited hybridization-sensitive fluorescence emission for the mRNA expressed in a living cell. The mRNA in a nucleus was detected clearly as fluorescent puncta, and the images of the expression of two mRNAs were obtained independently and simultaneously with two orthogonal tag-probe pairs. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: A compact and repeated label has been developed for RNA imaging in a living cell, based on the photochemistry of ECHO probes. The pairs of an 18-nt RNA tag and the complementary ECHO probes are highly thermostable, sequence-specifically emissive, and orthogonal to each other. The nucleotide length necessary for one tag sequence is much shorter compared with conventional tag technologies, resulting in easy preparation of the tag sequences with a larger number of repeats for more distinct RNA imaging.

  8. Localization of mitochondria in living cells with rhodamine 123.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, L V; Walsh, M L; Chen, L B

    1980-01-01

    The laser dye rhodamine 123 is shown to be a specific probe for the localization of mitochondria in living cells. By virtue of its selectivity for mitochondria and its fluorescent properties, the detectability of mitochondria stained with rhodamine 123 is significantly improved over that provided by conventional light microscopic techniques. With the use of rhodamine 123, it is possible to detect alterations in mitochondrial distribution following transformation by Rous sarcoma virus and changes in the shape and organization of mitochondria induced by colchicine treatment. Images PMID:6965798

  9. Continuous depth-sensing nano-mechanical characterization of living, fixed and dehydrated cells attached on a glass substrate

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yang, Yun-Ta; Liao, Jiunn-Der; Chang, Chia-Wei [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, University Road, Tainan 70101, Taiwan (China); Lin, Chou-Ching K [Department of Neurology, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, University Road, Tainan 70101, Taiwan (China); Ju, Ming-Shaung, E-mail: jdliao@mail.ncku.edu.tw [Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, No. 1, University Road, Tainan 70101, Taiwan (China)

    2010-07-16

    Continuous depth-sensing nano-indentation on living, fixed and dehydrated fibroblast cells was performed using a dynamic contact module and vertically measured from a pre-contact state to the glass substrate. The nano-indentation tip-on-cell approaches took advantage of finding a contact surface, followed by obtaining a continuous nano-mechanical profile along the nano-indentation depths. In the experiment, serial indentations from the leading edge, i.e., the lamellipodium to nucleus regions of living, fixed and dehydrated fibroblast cells were examined. Nano-indentations on a living cell anchored upon glass substrate were competent in finding the tip-on-cell contact surfaces and cell heights. For the result on the fixed and the dehydrated cells, cellular nano-mechanical properties were clearly characterized by continuous harmonic contact stiffness (HCS) measurements. The relations of HCS versus measured displacement, varied from the initial tip-on-cell contact to the glass substrate, were presumably divided into three stages, respectively induced by cellular intrinsic behavior, the substrate-dominant property, and the substrate property. This manifestation is beneficial to elucidate how the underlying substrate influences the interpretation of the nano-mechanical property of thin soft matter on a hard substrate. These findings, based upon continuous depth-sensing nano-indentations, are presumably valuable as a reference to related work, e.g., accomplished by atomic force microscopy.

  10. Continuous depth-sensing nano-mechanical characterization of living, fixed and dehydrated cells attached on a glass substrate

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yang, Yun-Ta; Liao, Jiunn-Der; Chang, Chia-Wei; Lin, Chou-Ching K; Ju, Ming-Shaung

    2010-01-01

    Continuous depth-sensing nano-indentation on living, fixed and dehydrated fibroblast cells was performed using a dynamic contact module and vertically measured from a pre-contact state to the glass substrate. The nano-indentation tip-on-cell approaches took advantage of finding a contact surface, followed by obtaining a continuous nano-mechanical profile along the nano-indentation depths. In the experiment, serial indentations from the leading edge, i.e., the lamellipodium to nucleus regions of living, fixed and dehydrated fibroblast cells were examined. Nano-indentations on a living cell anchored upon glass substrate were competent in finding the tip-on-cell contact surfaces and cell heights. For the result on the fixed and the dehydrated cells, cellular nano-mechanical properties were clearly characterized by continuous harmonic contact stiffness (HCS) measurements. The relations of HCS versus measured displacement, varied from the initial tip-on-cell contact to the glass substrate, were presumably divided into three stages, respectively induced by cellular intrinsic behavior, the substrate-dominant property, and the substrate property. This manifestation is beneficial to elucidate how the underlying substrate influences the interpretation of the nano-mechanical property of thin soft matter on a hard substrate. These findings, based upon continuous depth-sensing nano-indentations, are presumably valuable as a reference to related work, e.g., accomplished by atomic force microscopy.

  11. Visualizing double-stranded RNA distribution and dynamics in living cells by dsRNA binding-dependent fluorescence complementation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cheng, Xiaofei [Southern Crop Protection and Food Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, London, Ontario N5V 4T3 (Canada); College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310036 (China); Deng, Ping; Cui, Hongguang [Southern Crop Protection and Food Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, London, Ontario N5V 4T3 (Canada); Wang, Aiming, E-mail: aiming.wang@agr.gc.ca [Southern Crop Protection and Food Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, London, Ontario N5V 4T3 (Canada)

    2015-11-15

    Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is an important type of RNA that plays essential roles in diverse cellular processes in eukaryotic organisms and a hallmark in infections by positive-sense RNA viruses. Currently, no in vivo technology has been developed for visualizing dsRNA in living cells. Here, we report a dsRNA binding-dependent fluorescence complementation (dRBFC) assay that can be used to efficiently monitor dsRNA distribution and dynamics in vivo. The system consists of two dsRNA-binding proteins, which are fused to the N- and C-terminal halves of the yellow fluorescent protein (YFP). Binding of the two fusion proteins to a common dsRNA brings the split YFP halves in close proximity, leading to the reconstitution of the fluorescence-competent structure and restoration of fluorescence. Using this technique, we were able to visualize the distribution and trafficking of the replicative RNA intermediates of positive-sense RNA viruses in living cells. - Highlights: • A live-cell imaging system was developed for visualizing dsRNA in vivo. • It uses dsRNA binding proteins fused with two halves of a fluorescent protein. • Binding to a common dsRNA enables the reporter to become fluorescent. • The system can efficiently monitor viral RNA replication in living cells.

  12. Visualizing double-stranded RNA distribution and dynamics in living cells by dsRNA binding-dependent fluorescence complementation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cheng, Xiaofei; Deng, Ping; Cui, Hongguang; Wang, Aiming

    2015-01-01

    Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is an important type of RNA that plays essential roles in diverse cellular processes in eukaryotic organisms and a hallmark in infections by positive-sense RNA viruses. Currently, no in vivo technology has been developed for visualizing dsRNA in living cells. Here, we report a dsRNA binding-dependent fluorescence complementation (dRBFC) assay that can be used to efficiently monitor dsRNA distribution and dynamics in vivo. The system consists of two dsRNA-binding proteins, which are fused to the N- and C-terminal halves of the yellow fluorescent protein (YFP). Binding of the two fusion proteins to a common dsRNA brings the split YFP halves in close proximity, leading to the reconstitution of the fluorescence-competent structure and restoration of fluorescence. Using this technique, we were able to visualize the distribution and trafficking of the replicative RNA intermediates of positive-sense RNA viruses in living cells. - Highlights: • A live-cell imaging system was developed for visualizing dsRNA in vivo. • It uses dsRNA binding proteins fused with two halves of a fluorescent protein. • Binding to a common dsRNA enables the reporter to become fluorescent. • The system can efficiently monitor viral RNA replication in living cells.

  13. A novel approach for studying programmed cell death in living plant tissues

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mark, Christina

    to traditional approaches. Future applications of this type of setup could be used for other types of plant tissues such as leaves or germinating embryos for studying the effects of e.g. biotic and abiotic stresses or for screening of compounds for biological effects. Due to the ease of use and many......Programmed cell death (PCD) is a highly regulated process in which cells are killed as part of developmental programmes or as defence mechanisms against pathogens, but the process is less well understood in plant cells compared to animal cells. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are involved in PCD...... in plants, but the relationship between and mechanisms behind ROS and PCDhas not yet been fully elucidated due to the involvement of complex signalling networks. Elucidation of these mechanisms and signalling pathways will allow manipulation of cell death in plants, which could help to improve yield...

  14. Video-rate confocal microscopy for single-molecule imaging in live cells and superresolution fluorescence imaging.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Jinwoo; Miyanaga, Yukihiro; Ueda, Masahiro; Hohng, Sungchul

    2012-10-17

    There is no confocal microscope optimized for single-molecule imaging in live cells and superresolution fluorescence imaging. By combining the swiftness of the line-scanning method and the high sensitivity of wide-field detection, we have developed a, to our knowledge, novel confocal fluorescence microscope with a good optical-sectioning capability (1.0 μm), fast frame rates (fluorescence detection efficiency. Full compatibility of the microscope with conventional cell-imaging techniques allowed us to do single-molecule imaging with a great ease at arbitrary depths of live cells. With the new microscope, we monitored diffusion motion of fluorescently labeled cAMP receptors of Dictyostelium discoideum at both the basal and apical surfaces and obtained superresolution fluorescence images of microtubules of COS-7 cells at depths in the range 0-85 μm from the surface of a coverglass. Copyright © 2012 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Fluorescence Dynamics in the Endoplasmic Reticulum of a Live Cell: Time-Resolved Confocal Microscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghosh, Shirsendu; Nandi, Somen; Ghosh, Catherine; Bhattacharyya, Kankan

    2016-09-19

    Fluorescence dynamics in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of a live non-cancer lung cell (WI38) and a lung cancer cell (A549) are studied by using time-resolved confocal microscopy. To selectively study the organelle, ER, we have used an ER-Tracker dye. From the emission maximum (λmaxem) of the ER-Tracker dye, polarity (i.e. dielectric constant, ϵ) in the ER region of the cells (≈500 nm in WI38 and ≈510 nm in A549) is estimated to be similar to that of chloroform (λmaxem =506 nm, ϵ≈5). The red shift by 10 nm in λmaxem in the cancer cell (A549) suggests a slightly higher polarity compared to the non-cancer cell (WI38). The fluorescence intensity of the ER-Tracker dye exhibits prolonged intermittent oscillations on a timescale of 2-6 seconds for the cancer cell (A549). For the non-cancer cell (WI38), such fluorescence oscillations are much less prominent. The marked fluorescence intensity oscillations in the cancer cell are attributed to enhanced calcium oscillations. The average solvent relaxation time () of the ER region in the lung cancer cell (A549, 250±50 ps) is about four times faster than that in the non-cancer cell (WI38, 1000±50 ps). © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  16. Peripheral blood cells among community residents living near nuclear power plants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Yuan-Teh; Hsu, Hsiu-Ching; Chien, Kuo-Liong; Yang, Chi-Yu; Chen, Wen Jone [Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, No. 7 Chungshan South Road, 10020 Taipei (Taiwan, Province of China); Sung, Fung C. [Institute of Environmental Health, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, Taipei (Taiwan, Province of China); Lin, Ruey S. [Institute of Epidemiology, National Taiwan University College of Public Health, Taipei (Taiwan, Province of China)

    2001-12-03

    Information about hematopoieses as a result of exposure to very low levels of radiation is scarce. To investigate the human hematopoietic effect of very low level radiation exposure, measurements of peripheral blood components were performed among 3602 men and women, aged 35 and above, living in a community near two nuclear power installations in Chinshan, Taiwan. The radiation level that each individual was exposed to was represented by a surrogate level, '+', a transformed distance from each individual's residence to the two power plants D{sub 1} and D{sub 2}. In addition to comparing average hematology measurements, multiple regression analyses were done to include age, gender, smoking, drinking status and the surrogate radiation exposure level as independent variables. Univariate and bivariate analyses showed that the hematology measurements had significant associations with age, gender, smoking or drinking. The multiple regression analyses revealed that significant positive associations with '+' were found for hemoglobin, hematocrit, platelet, white blood cell and red blood cell. The platelet count might increase for 208.7x10{sup 3}/{mu}l if the exposure from the nuclear plants increased by one exposure unit. This type of association implies that those who lived closer to the nuclear power installation had a higher blood cell count; we suspect that this could be a type of radiation hormesis.

  17. Live-cell stimulated Raman scattering imaging of alkyne-tagged biomolecules.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hong, Senlian; Chen, Tao; Zhu, Yuntao; Li, Ang; Huang, Yanyi; Chen, Xing

    2014-06-02

    Alkynes can be metabolically incorporated into biomolecules including nucleic acids, proteins, lipids, and glycans. In addition to the clickable chemical reactivity, alkynes possess a unique Raman scattering within the Raman-silent region of a cell. Coupling this spectroscopic signature with Raman microscopy yields a new imaging modality beyond fluorescence and label-free microscopies. The bioorthogonal Raman imaging of various biomolecules tagged with an alkyne by a state-of-the-art Raman imaging technique, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy, is reported. This imaging method affords non-invasiveness, high sensitivity, and molecular specificity and therefore should find broad applications in live-cell imaging. © 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  18. A Checklist for Successful Quantitative Live Cell Imaging in Systems Biology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sung, Myong-Hee

    2013-01-01

    Mathematical modeling of signaling and gene regulatory networks has provided unique insights about systems behaviors for many cell biological problems of medical importance. Quantitative single cell monitoring has a crucial role in advancing systems modeling of molecular networks. However, due to the multidisciplinary techniques that are necessary for adaptation of such systems biology approaches, dissemination to a wide research community has been relatively slow. In this essay, I focus on some technical aspects that are often under-appreciated, yet critical in harnessing live cell imaging methods to achieve single-cell-level understanding and quantitative modeling of molecular networks. The importance of these technical considerations will be elaborated with examples of successes and shortcomings. Future efforts will benefit by avoiding some pitfalls and by utilizing the lessons collectively learned from recent applications of imaging in systems biology. PMID:24709701

  19. Avian metapneumovirus M2:2 protein inhibits replication in Vero cells: modification facilitates live vaccine development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clubbe, Jayne; Naylor, Clive J

    2011-11-28

    Throughout the world, avian metapneumovirus (AMPV) infection of subtype A is principally controlled by two live vaccines both derived from UK field strain #8544. Improvements of those vaccines by use of reverse genetics technology was found to be hampered by the inability of #8544 to replicate in the commonly exploited Vero cell based reverse genetics system. A systematic reverse genetics based genome modification of a DNA copy of #8544, employing sequence data from a Vero grown, #8544 derived, live vaccine; was used to determine mutations required to facilitate virus recovery and replication in Vero cells. This identified a single coding substitution in the M2:2 reading frame as responsible. Furthermore, ablation of M2:2 was found to elicit the same outcome. M2:2 sequence analysis of seven AMPVs found Vero cell adaption to be associated with non similar amino acid changes in M2:2. The study shows that M2:2 modification of field virus #8544 will enable research leading to improved vaccines. This may have more general application to other AMPV field strains. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Main Achievements 2003-2004 - Interdisciplinary Research - Applications of nuclear methods to biomedical physics, environmental biology, environmental physics, and medical physics - Mechanical properties of living cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2005-01-01

    Mechanical properties of living cells, as potential markers of pathological cell state, were investigated in their native environment by atomic force microscopy. In normal and pathological living cells, local elasticity and the specific binding interactions between biomolecules were measured, showing that the interaction force between lectins (ConA, SNA, PHA-L) and cell surface carbohydrates was altered due to cancerous transformation. In further collaboration with the Collegium Medicum of the Jagiellonian University, the elasticity of large number of blood samples, originated from healthy and hospitalized patients, was studied as a first attempt at applying AFM as a tool in medical diagnostics

  1. A novel approach for the detection and genetic analysis of live melanoma circulating tumor cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Melody J Xu

    Full Text Available Circulating tumor cell (CTC detection and genetic analysis may complement currently available disease assessments in patients with melanoma to improve risk stratification and monitoring. We therefore sought to establish the feasibility of a telomerase-based assay for detecting and isolating live melanoma CTCs.The telomerase-based CTC assay utilizes an adenoviral vector that, in the presence of elevated human telomerase activity, drives the amplification of green fluorescent protein. Tumor cells are then identified via an image processing system. The protocol was tested on melanoma cells in culture or spiked into control blood, and on samples from patients with metastatic melanoma. Genetic analysis of the isolated melanoma CTCs was then performed for BRAF mutation status.The adenoviral vector was effective for all melanoma cell lines tested with sensitivity of 88.7% (95%CI 85.6-90.4% and specificity of 99.9% (95%CI 99.8-99.9%. In a pilot trial of patients with metastatic disease, CTCs were identified in 9 of 10 patients, with a mean of 6.0 CTCs/mL. At a cutoff of 1.1 CTCs/mL, the telomerase-based assay exhibits test performance of 90.0% sensitivity and 91.7% specificity. BRAF mutation analysis of melanoma cells isolated from culture or spiked control blood, or from pilot patient samples was found to match the known BRAF mutation status of the cell lines and primary tumors.To our knowledge, this is the first report of a telomerase-based assay effective for detecting and isolating live melanoma CTCs. These promising findings support further studies, including towards integrating into the management of patients with melanoma receiving multimodality therapy.

  2. Synchrotron infrared spectromicroscopy as a novel bioanalytical microprobe for individual living cells: Cytotoxicity considerations

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Holman, Hoi-Ying N.; Bjornstad, Kathleen A.; McNamara, Morgan P.; Martin, Michael C.; McKinney, Wayne R.; Blakely, Eleanor A.

    2001-12-12

    Synchrotron radiation-based Fourier transform infrared (SR-FTIR) spectromicroscopy is a newly emerging analytical tool capable of monitoring the biochemistry within an individual living mammalian cell in real time. This unique technique provides infrared (IR)spectra, hence chemical information, with high signal-to-noise at spatial resolutions as fine as 3 to 10 microns. Mid-IR photons are too low in energy (0.05-0.5 eV) to either break bonds or to cause ionization, and the synchrotron IR beam has been shown to produce minimal sample heating. However, an important question remains, ''Does the intense synchrotron beam induce any cytotoxic effects in living cells?'' In this work, we present the results from a series of standard biological assays to evaluate any short-and/or long-term effects on cells exposed to the synchrotron radiation-based infrared (SR-IR) beam. Cell viability was tested using alcian blue dye-exclusion and colony formation assays. Cell-cycle progression was tested with bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) uptake during DNA synthesis. Cell metabolism was tested using an 3-[4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. All control, 5-, 10-, and 20-minute SR-IR exposure tests (267 total and over 1000 controls) show no evidence of cytotoxic effects. Concurrent infrared spectra obtained with each experiment confirm no detectable chemistry changes between control and exposed cells.

  3. We need theoretical physics approaches to study living systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blagoev, Krastan B.; Shukla, Kamal; affil="3" >Herbert Levine,

    2013-08-01

    Living systems, as created initially by the transition from assemblies of large molecules to self-reproducing information-rich cells, have for centuries been studied via the empirical toolkit of biology. This has been a highly successful enterprise, bringing us from the vague non-scientific notions of vitalism to the modern appreciation of the biophysical and biochemical bases of life. Yet, the truly mind-boggling complexity of even the simplest self-sufficient cells, let alone the emergence of multicellular organisms, of brain and consciousness, and to ecological communities and human civilizations, calls out for a complementary approach. In this editorial, we propose that theoretical physics can play an essential role in making sense of living matter. When faced with a highly complex system, a physicist builds simplified models. Quoting Philip W Anderson's Nobel prize address, 'the art of model-building is the exclusion of real but irrelevant parts of the problem and entails hazards for the builder and the reader. The builder may leave out something genuinely relevant and the reader, armed with too sophisticated an experimental probe, may take literally a schematized model. Very often such a simplified model throws more light on the real working of nature....' In his formulation, the job of a theorist is to get at the crux of the system by ignoring details and yet to find a testable consequence of the resulting simple picture. This is rather different than the predilection of the applied mathematician who wants to include all the known details in the hope of a quantitative simulacrum of reality. These efforts may be practically useful, but do not usually lead to increased understanding. To illustrate how this works, we can look at a non-living example of complex behavior that was afforded by spatiotemporal patterning in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction [1]. Physicists who worked on this system did not attempt to determine all the relevant chemical intermediates

  4. Effect of Different Concentrations of Melatonin on Live Births Resulting from the Transfer of Two-Cell Embryos of NMRI Mice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahdi Saadati

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Background & objectives : Infertility is a global problem affecting millions of men and women in developed and developing countries. In this regard, in-vitro fertilization (IVF plays an important role in improving the quality of life in infertile patients. However, studies have shown that the implantation failure in IVF is the main challenge of this procedure. Melatonin can increase the survival rate of embryos and IVF success rate through eliminating free radicals and removing reactive oxygen species. So, this study is conducted to investigate the effects of different concentrations of melatonin on the rate of newborns of mice following transfer oftwo-cell embryos .   Methods : In this study, female mice with average age of six to eight weeks were superovulated by administering pregnant mares serum gonadotropin (PMSG intraperitoneally (7.5 IU. ip, and followed after 48h by human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG (7.5 IU. ip. Two-cell mouse embryos were obtained from female mice oviduct after 48 h. The embryos transferred bilaterally into pseudopregnant mice of the same strain through surgical procedure and 8-14 embryos were transferred to each tube. The study included 4 treatment groups and one control group (6 mice in each group. The treatment groups were exposed to subcutaneous injection of concentrations of 100 µm , 10 µm , 1 µm and 100 nm of melatonin. After the cesarean on 18th day of pregnancy, the percentage of live births was assessed. The outcomes of the live birth rate were as­sessed using the chi-square test and statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS version 16.0. Percentage of live birth was calculated and compared with the control group.   Results: A total of 701 two-cell mouse embryos were transferred into one control group and four experimental groups. The number and percentage of live births at concentrations of 100 µm and 10 µm of melatonin and the control groups were 21 (15.55%, 13 (9.15% and 9 (6

  5. A multidisciplinary approach to study the functional properties of neuron-like cell models constituting a living bio-hybrid system: SH-SY5Y cells adhering to PANI substrate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    S. Caponi

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available A living bio-hybrid system has been successfully implemented. It is constituted by neuroblastic cells, the SH-SY5Y human neuroblastoma cells, adhering to a poly-anyline (PANI a semiconductor polymer with memristive properties. By a multidisciplinary approach, the biocompatibility of the substrate has been analyzed and the functionality of the adhering cells has been investigated. We found that the PANI films can support the cell adhesion. Moreover, the SH-SY5Y cells were successfully differentiated into neuron-like cells for in vitro applications demonstrating that PANI can also promote cell differentiation. In order to deeply characterize the modifications of the bio-functionality induced by the cell-substrate interaction, the functional properties of the cells have been characterized by electrophysiology and Raman spectroscopy. Our results confirm that the PANI films do not strongly affect the general properties of the cells, ensuring their viability without toxic effects on their physiology. Ascribed to the adhesion process, however, a slight increase of the markers of the cell suffering has been evidenced by Raman spectroscopy and accordingly the electrophysiology shows a reduction at positive stimulations in the cells excitability.

  6. Analysis of Distinct Roles of CaMKK Isoforms Using STO-609-Resistant Mutants in Living Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fujiwara, Yuya; Hiraoka, Yuri; Fujimoto, Tomohito; Kanayama, Naoki; Magari, Masaki; Tokumitsu, Hiroshi

    2015-06-30

    To assess the isoform specificity of the Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase (CaMKK)-mediated signaling pathway using a CaMKK inhibitor (STO-609) in living cells, we have established A549 cell lines expressing STO-609-resistant mutants of CaMKK isoforms. Following serial mutagenesis studies, we have succeeded in obtaining an STO-609-resistant CaMKKα mutant (Ala292Thr/Leu233Phe) and a CaMKKβ mutant (Ala328Thr/Val269Phe), which showed sensitivity to STO-609 that was 2-3 orders of magnitude lower without an appreciable effect on kinase activity or CaM requirement. These results are consistent with the results obtained for CaMKK activities in the extracts of A549 cells stably expressing the mutants of CaMKK isoforms. Ionomycin-induced 5'-AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) phosphorylation at Thr172 in A549 cells expressing either the wild-type or the STO-609-resistant mutant of CaMKKα was completely suppressed by STO-609 treatment but resistant to the inhibitor in the presence of the CaMKKβ mutant (Ala328Thr/Val269Phe). This result strongly suggested that CaMKKβ is responsible for ionomycin-induced AMPK activation, which supported previous reports. In contrast, ionomycin-induced CaMKIV phosphorylation at Thr196 was resistant to STO-609 treatment in A549 cells expressing STO-609-resistant mutants of both CaMKK isoforms, indicating that both CaMKK isoforms are capable of phosphorylating and activating CaMKIV in living cells. Considering these results together, STO-609-resistant CaMKK mutants developed in this study may be useful for distinguishing CaMKK isoform-mediated signaling pathways in combination with the use of an inhibitor compound.

  7. Development of a living membrane comprising a functional human renal proximal tubule cell monolayer on polyethersulfone polymeric membrane.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schophuizen, Carolien M S; De Napoli, Ilaria E; Jansen, Jitske; Teixeira, Sandra; Wilmer, Martijn J; Hoenderop, Joost G J; Van den Heuvel, Lambert P W; Masereeuw, Rosalinde; Stamatialis, Dimitrios

    2015-03-01

    The need for improved renal replacement therapies has stimulated innovative research for the development of a cell-based renal assist device. A key requirement for such a device is the formation of a "living membrane", consisting of a tight kidney cell monolayer with preserved functional organic ion transporters on a suitable artificial membrane surface. In this work, we applied a unique conditionally immortalized proximal tubule epithelial cell (ciPTEC) line with an optimized coating strategy on polyethersulfone (PES) membranes to develop a living membrane with a functional proximal tubule epithelial cell layer. PES membranes were coated with combinations of 3,4-dihydroxy-l-phenylalanine and human collagen IV (Coll IV). The optimal coating time and concentrations were determined to achieve retention of vital blood components while preserving high water transport and optimal ciPTEC adhesion. The ciPTEC monolayers obtained were examined through immunocytochemistry to detect zona occludens 1 tight junction proteins. Reproducible monolayers were formed when using a combination of 2 mg ml(-1) 3,4-dihydroxy-l-phenylalanine (4 min coating, 1h dissolution) and 25 μg ml(-1) Coll IV (4 min coating). The successful transport of (14)C-creatinine through the developed living membrane system was used as an indication for organic cation transporter functionality. The addition of metformin or cimetidine significantly reduced the creatinine transepithelial flux, indicating active creatinine uptake in ciPTECs, most likely mediated by the organic cation transporter, OCT2 (SLC22A2). In conclusion, this study shows the successful development of a living membrane consisting of a reproducible ciPTEC monolayer on PES membranes, an important step towards the development of a bioartificial kidney. Copyright © 2014 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. Localizing Proteins in Fixed Giardia lamblia and Live Cultured Mammalian Cells by Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nyindodo-Ogari, Lilian; Schwartzbach, Steven D; Skalli, Omar; Estraño, Carlos E

    2016-01-01

    Confocal fluorescence microscopy and electron microscopy (EM) are complementary methods for studying the intracellular localization of proteins. Confocal fluorescence microscopy provides a rapid and technically simple method to identify the organelle in which a protein localizes but only EM can identify the suborganellular compartment in which that protein is present. Confocal fluorescence microscopy, however, can provide information not obtainable by EM but required to understand the dynamics and interactions of specific proteins. In addition, confocal fluorescence microscopy of cells transfected with a construct encoding a protein of interest fused to a fluorescent protein tag allows live cell studies of the subcellular localization of that protein and the monitoring in real time of its trafficking. Immunostaining methods for confocal fluorescence microscopy are also faster and less involved than those for EM allowing rapid optimization of the antibody dilution needed and a determination of whether protein antigenicity is maintained under fixation conditions used for EM immunogold labeling. This chapter details a method to determine by confocal fluorescence microscopy the intracellular localization of a protein by transfecting the organism of interest, in this case Giardia lamblia, with the cDNA encoding the protein of interest and then processing these organisms for double label immunofluorescence staining after chemical fixation. Also presented is a method to identify the organelle targeting information in the presequence of a precursor protein, in this case the presequence of the precursor to the Euglena light harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding protein of photosystem II precursor (pLHCPII), using live cell imaging of mammalian COS7 cells transiently transfected with a plasmid encoding a pLHCPII presequence fluorescent protein fusion and stained with organelle-specific fluorescent dyes.

  9. Live imaging of companion cells and sieve elements in Arabidopsis leaves.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Thibaud Cayla

    Full Text Available The phloem is a complex tissue composed of highly specialized cells with unique subcellular structures and a compact organization that is challenging to study in vivo at cellular resolution. We used confocal scanning laser microscopy and subcellular fluorescent markers in companion cells and sieve elements, for live imaging of the phloem in Arabidopsis leaves. This approach provided a simple framework for identifying phloem cell types unambiguously. It highlighted the compactness of the meshed network of organelles within companion cells. By contrast, within the sieve elements, unknown bodies were observed in association with the PP2-A1:GFP, GFP:RTM1 and RTM2:GFP markers at the cell periphery. The phloem lectin PP2-A1:GFP marker was found in the parietal ground matrix. Its location differed from that of the P-protein filaments, which were visualized with SEOR1:GFP and SEOR2:GFP. PP2-A1:GFP surrounded two types of bodies, one of which was identified as mitochondria. This location suggested that it was embedded within the sieve element clamps, specific structures that may fix the organelles to each another or to the plasma membrane in the sieve tubes. GFP:RTM1 was associated with a class of larger bodies, potentially corresponding to plastids. PP2-A1:GFP was soluble in the cytosol of immature sieve elements. The changes in its subcellular localization during differentiation provide an in vivo blueprint for monitoring this process. The subcellular features obtained with these companion cell and sieve element markers can be used as landmarks for exploring the organization and dynamics of phloem cells in vivo.

  10. Sub-15 fs multiphoton lithography of three-dimensional structures for live cell applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Licht, Martin; Uchugonova, Aisada; König, Karsten; Straub, Martin

    2012-01-01

    Development, morphology and intratissue location of cells are influenced by the 3D nano- and microenvironment. In this paper we demonstrate multiphoton photopolymerization to generate three-dimensional structures for cell culture applications with micro- and nanotopographic features using SU-8 photoresist and mr-NIL 6000 nanoimprint resist. Moving the focal spot of high-repetition rate near-infrared sub-15 fs pulsed laser light by a galvanometric beam scanner in combination with a piezoelectric vertical stage, nearly arbitrary trajectories of polymerized photoresist were generated. This technique can be used to generate cage structures with submicron interior features for live cell applications. Preliminary experiments with PC-3 and HT-1080 cells indicate the influence of the structures on cell behavior. (paper)

  11. Biophysical response of living cells to boron nitride nanoparticles: uptake mechanism and bio-mechanical characterization

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rasel, Md. Alim Iftekhar; Li, Tong; Nguyen, Trung Dung; Singh, Sanjleena [Queensland University of Technology (QUT), School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering (Australia); Zhou, Yinghong; Xiao, Yin [Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (Australia); Gu, YuanTong, E-mail: yuantong.gu@qut.edu.au [Queensland University of Technology (QUT), School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering (Australia)

    2015-11-15

    Boron nitride nanomaterials have attracted significant interest due to their superior chemical and physical properties. Despite these novel properties, investigation on the interaction between boron nitride nanoparticle (BN NP) and living systems has been limited. In this study, BN NP (100–250 nm) is assessed as a promising biomaterial for medical applications. The toxicity of BN NP is evaluated by assessing the cells behaviours both biologically (MTT assay, ROS detection etc.) and physically (atomic force microscopy). The uptake mechanism of BN NP is studied by analysing the alternations in cellular morphology based on cell imaging techniques. The results demonstrate in vitro cytocompatibility of BN NP with immense potential for use as an effective nanoparticle for various bio-medical applications.

  12. Supramolecular oligothiophene microfibers spontaneously assembled on surfaces or coassembled with proteins inside live cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbarella, Giovanna; Di Maria, Francesca

    2015-08-18

    During the last few decades, multifunctional nano- and microfibers made of semiconducting π-conjugated oligomers and polymers have generated much interest because of a broad range of applications extending from sensing to bioelectronic devices and (opto)electronics. The simplest technique for the fabrication of these anisotropic supramolecular structures is to let the molecules do the work by spontaneous organization driven by the information encoded in their molecular structure. Oligothiophenes-semiconducting and fluorescent compounds that have been extensively investigated for applications in thin-film field-effect transistors and solar cells and to a lesser extent as dyes for fluorescent labeling of proteins, DNA, and live cells-are particularly suited as building blocks for supramolecular architectures because of the peculiar properties of the thiophene ring. Because of the great polarizability of sulfur outer-shell electrons and the consequent facile geometric deformability and adaptability of the ring to the environment, thiophene can generate multiple nonbonding interactions to promote non-covalent connections between blocks. Furthermore, sulfur can be hypervalent, i.e., it can accommodate more than the eight electrons normally associated with s and p shells. Hypervalent oligothiophene-S,S-dioxides whose oxygen atoms can be involved in hydrogen bonding have been synthesized. These compounds are amphiphilic, and some of them are able to spontaneously cross the membrane of live cells. Hypervalent nonbonding interactions of divalent sulfur, defined as weak coordination to a proximate nitrogen or oxygen, have also been invoked in the solid-state packing of many organic molecules and in the architecture of proteins. In this Account, we describe two different types of thiophene-based building blocks that can induce the spontaneous formation of nanostructured microfibers in very different environments. The first, based on the synthesis of "sulfur

  13. Identification of novel direct protein-protein interactions by irradiating living cells with femtosecond UV laser pulses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Itri, Francesco; Monti, Daria Maria; Chino, Marco; Vinciguerra, Roberto; Altucci, Carlo; Lombardi, Angela; Piccoli, Renata; Birolo, Leila; Arciello, Angela

    2017-10-07

    The identification of protein-protein interaction networks in living cells is becoming increasingly fundamental to elucidate main biological processes and to understand disease molecular bases on a system-wide level. We recently described a method (LUCK, Laser UV Cross-linKing) to cross-link interacting protein surfaces in living cells by UV laser irradiation. By using this innovative methodology, that does not require any protein modification or cell engineering, here we demonstrate that, upon UV laser irradiation of HeLa cells, a direct interaction between GAPDH and alpha-enolase was "frozen" by a cross-linking event. We validated the occurrence of this direct interaction by co-immunoprecipitation and Immuno-FRET analyses. This represents a proof of principle of the LUCK capability to reveal direct protein interactions in their physiological environment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Biothermodynamics of live cells: a tool for biotechnology and biochemical engineering

    Science.gov (United States)

    von Stockar, Urs

    2010-12-01

    The aim of this contribution is to review the application of thermodynamics to live cultures of microbial and other cells and to explore to what extent this may be put to practical use. A major focus is on energy dissipation effects in industrially relevant cultures, both in terms of heat and Gibbs energy dissipation. The experimental techniques for calorimetric measurements in live cultures are reviewed and their use for monitoring and control is discussed. A detailed analysis of the dissipation of Gibbs energy in chemotrophic growth shows that it reflects the entropy production by metabolic processes in the cells and thus also the driving force for growth and metabolism. By splitting metabolism conceptually up into catabolism and biosynthesis, it can be shown that this driving force decreases as the growth yield increases. This relationship is demonstrated by using experimental measurements on a variety of microbial strains. On the basis of these data, several literature correlations were tested as tools for biomass yield prediction. The prediction of other culture performance characteristics, including product yields for biorefinery planning, energy yields for biofuel manufacture, maximum growth rates, maintenance requirements, and threshold concentrations is also briefly reviewed.

  15. Live imaging of spindle pole disorganization in docetaxel-treated multicolor cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sakaushi, Shinji; Nishida, Kumi; Minamikawa, Harumi; Fukada, Takashi; Oka, Shigenori; Sugimoto, Kenji

    2007-01-01

    Treatment of cells with docetaxel at low concentrations induces aberrant bipolar spindles of which two centrosomes stay at only one pole, and also induces multipolar spindles. To gain insight into the relations between centrosome impairment and structural defects of the spindle, live-cell imaging was performed on a human MDA Auro/imp/H3 cell line in which centrosomes/mitotic spindles, nuclear membrane and chromatin were simultaneously visualized by fluorescent proteins. In the presence of docetaxel at IC 50 concentration, the centrosomes did not segregate, and multiple aster-like structures ectopically arose around the disappearing nuclear membrane. Those ectopic structures formed an acentrosomal pole opposing to the two-centrosomes-containing pole. In late metaphase, one pole often fragmented into multiple spindle poles, leading multipolar division. These results suggest that spindle pole fragility may be induced by centrosome impairment, and collapse of the pole may contribute to induction of aneuploid daughter cells

  16. Biofilm growth program and architecture revealed by single-cell live imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yan, Jing; Sabass, Benedikt; Stone, Howard; Wingreen, Ned; Bassler, Bonnie

    Biofilms are surface-associated bacterial communities. Little is known about biofilm structure at the level of individual cells. We image living, growing Vibrio cholerae biofilms from founder cells to ten thousand cells at single-cell resolution, and discover the forces underpinning the architectural evolution of the biofilm. Mutagenesis, matrix labeling, and simulations demonstrate that surface-adhesion-mediated compression causes V. cholerae biofilms to transition from a two-dimensional branched morphology to a dense, ordered three-dimensional cluster. We discover that directional proliferation of rod-shaped bacteria plays a dominant role in shaping the biofilm architecture, and this growth pattern is controlled by a single gene. Competition analyses reveal the advantages of the dense growth mode in providing the biofilm with superior mechanical properties. We will further present continuum theory to model the three-dimensional growth of biofilms at the solid-liquid interface as well as solid-air interface.

  17. Real-time dynamics of RNA Polymerase II clustering in live human cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cisse, Ibrahim

    2014-03-01

    Transcription is the first step in the central dogma of molecular biology, when genetic information encoded on DNA is made into messenger RNA. How this fundamental process occurs within living cells (in vivo) is poorly understood,[1] despite extensive biochemical characterizations with isolated biomolecules (in vitro). For high-order organisms, like humans, transcription is reported to be spatially compartmentalized in nuclear foci consisting of clusters of RNA Polymerase II, the enzyme responsible for synthesizing all messenger RNAs. However, little is known of when these foci assemble or their relative stability. We developed an approach based on photo-activation localization microscopy (PALM) combined with a temporal correlation analysis, which we refer to as tcPALM. The tcPALM method enables the real-time characterization of biomolecular spatiotemporal organization, with single-molecule sensitivity, directly in living cells.[2] Using tcPALM, we observed that RNA Polymerase II clusters form transiently, with an average lifetime of 5.1 (+/- 0.4) seconds. Stimuli affecting transcription regulation yielded orders of magnitude changes in the dynamics of the polymerase clusters, implying that clustering is regulated and plays a role in the cells ability to effect rapid response to external signals. Our results suggest that the transient crowding of enzymes may aid in rate-limiting steps of genome regulation.

  18. Rapid labeling of intracellular His-tagged proteins in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lai, Yau-Tsz; Chang, Yuen-Yan; Hu, Ligang; Yang, Ya; Chao, Ailun; Du, Zhi-Yan; Tanner, Julian A; Chye, Mee-Len; Qian, Chengmin; Ng, Kwan-Ming; Li, Hongyan; Sun, Hongzhe

    2015-03-10

    Small molecule-based fluorescent probes have been used for real-time visualization of live cells and tracking of various cellular events with minimal perturbation on the cells being investigated. Given the wide utility of the (histidine)6-Ni(2+)-nitrilotriacetate (Ni-NTA) system in protein purification, there is significant interest in fluorescent Ni(2+)-NTA-based probes. Unfortunately, previous Ni-NTA-based probes suffer from poor membrane permeability and cannot label intracellular proteins. Here, we report the design and synthesis of, to our knowledge, the first membrane-permeable fluorescent probe Ni-NTA-AC via conjugation of NTA with fluorophore and arylazide followed by coordination with Ni(2+) ions. The probe, driven by Ni(2+)-NTA, binds specifically to His-tags genetically fused to proteins and subsequently forms a covalent bond upon photoactivation of the arylazide, leading to a 13-fold fluorescence enhancement. The arylazide is indispensable not only for fluorescence enhancement, but also for strengthening the binding between the probe and proteins. Significantly, the Ni-NTA-AC probe can rapidly enter different types of cells, even plant tissues, to target His-tagged proteins. Using this probe, we visualized the subcellular localization of a DNA repair protein, Xeroderma pigmentosum group A (XPA122), which is known to be mainly enriched in the nucleus. We also demonstrated that the probe can image a genetically engineered His-tagged protein in plant tissues. This study thus offers a new opportunity for in situ visualization of large libraries of His-tagged proteins in various prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.

  19. A Fluorogenic TMP-tag for High Signal-to-Background Intracellular Live Cell Imaging

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jing, Chaoran

    2013-01-01

    Developed to compliment the use of fluorescent proteins in live cell imaging, chemical tags enjoy the benefit of modular incorporation of organic fluorophores, opening the possibility of high photon output and special photophysical properties. However, the theoretical challenge in using chemical tags as opposed to fluorescent proteins for high-resolution imaging is background noise from unbound and/or non-specifically bound ligand-fluorophore. We envisioned we could overcome this limit by engineering fluorogenic trimethoprim-based chemical tags (TMP-tags) in which the fluorophore is quenched until binding with E. coli dihydrofolate reductase (eDHFR) tagged protein displaces the quencher. Thus, we began by building a non-fluorogenic, covalent TMP-tag based on a proximity-induced reaction known to achieve rapid and specific labeling both in vitro and inside of living cells. Here we take the final step and render the covalent TMP-tag fluorogenic. In brief, we designed a trimeric TMP-fluorophore-quencher molecule (TMP-Q-Atto520) with the quencher attached to a leaving group that, upon TMP binding to eDHFR, would be cleaved by a cysteine residue (Cys) installed just outside the binding pocket of eDHFR. We present the in vitro experiments showing that the eDHFR:L28C nucleophile cleaves the TMP-Q-Atto520 rapidly and efficiently, resulting in covalent labeling and remarkable fluorescence enhancement. Most significantly, while only our initial design, TMP-Q-Atto520 achieved the demanding goal of not only labeling highly abundant, localized intracellular proteins, but also less abundant, more dynamic cytoplasmic proteins. These results suggest that fluorogenic TMP-tag can significantly impact highresolution live cell imaging and further establish the potential of proximity-induced reactivity and organic chemistry more broadly as part of the growing toolbox for synthetic biology and cell engineering. PMID:23745575

  20. Multiple origins of spontaneously arising micronuclei in HeLa cells: Direct evidence from long-term live cell imaging

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rao Xiaotang; Zhang Yingyin; Yi Qiyi; Hou Heli; Xu Bo; Chu Liang; Huang Yun; Zhang Wenrui; Fenech, Michael; Shi Qinghua

    2008-01-01

    Although micronuclei (MNi) are extensively used to evaluate genotoxic effects and chromosome instability, the most basic issue regarding their origins has not been completely addressed due to limitations of traditional methods. Recently, long-term live cell imaging was developed to monitor the dynamics of single cell in a real-time and high-throughput manner. In the present study, this state-of-the-art technique was employed to examine spontaneous micronucleus (MN) formation in untreated HeLa cells. We demonstrate that spontaneous MNi are derived from incorrectly aligned chromosomes in metaphase (displaced chromosomes, DCs), lagging chromosomes (LCs) and broken chromosome bridges (CBs) in later mitotic stages, but not nuclear buds in S phase. However, most of bipolar mitoses with DCs (91.29%), LCs (73.11%) and broken CBs (88.93%) did not give rise to MNi. Our data also show directly, for the first time, that MNi could originate spontaneously from (1) MNi already presented in the mother cells; (2) nuclear fragments that appeared during mitosis with CB; and (3) chromosomes being extruded into a minicell which fused with one of the daughter cells later. Quantitatively, most of MNi originated from LCs (63.66%), DCs (10.97%) and broken CBs (9.25%). Taken together, these direct evidences show that there are multiple origins for spontaneously arising MNi in HeLa cells and each mechanism contributes to overall MN formation to different extents

  1. Multiple origins of spontaneously arising micronuclei in HeLa cells: Direct evidence from long-term live cell imaging

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rao Xiaotang; Zhang Yingyin; Yi Qiyi; Hou Heli; Xu Bo; Chu Liang; Huang Yun; Zhang Wenrui [Laboratory of Molecular and Cell Genetics, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027 (China); Fenech, Michael [CSIRO Human Nutrition, PO Box 10041, Adelaide BC, Adelaide, SA 5000 (Australia); Shi Qinghua [Laboratory of Molecular and Cell Genetics, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230027 (China)], E-mail: qshi@ustc.edu.cn

    2008-11-10

    Although micronuclei (MNi) are extensively used to evaluate genotoxic effects and chromosome instability, the most basic issue regarding their origins has not been completely addressed due to limitations of traditional methods. Recently, long-term live cell imaging was developed to monitor the dynamics of single cell in a real-time and high-throughput manner. In the present study, this state-of-the-art technique was employed to examine spontaneous micronucleus (MN) formation in untreated HeLa cells. We demonstrate that spontaneous MNi are derived from incorrectly aligned chromosomes in metaphase (displaced chromosomes, DCs), lagging chromosomes (LCs) and broken chromosome bridges (CBs) in later mitotic stages, but not nuclear buds in S phase. However, most of bipolar mitoses with DCs (91.29%), LCs (73.11%) and broken CBs (88.93%) did not give rise to MNi. Our data also show directly, for the first time, that MNi could originate spontaneously from (1) MNi already presented in the mother cells; (2) nuclear fragments that appeared during mitosis with CB; and (3) chromosomes being extruded into a minicell which fused with one of the daughter cells later. Quantitatively, most of MNi originated from LCs (63.66%), DCs (10.97%) and broken CBs (9.25%). Taken together, these direct evidences show that there are multiple origins for spontaneously arising MNi in HeLa cells and each mechanism contributes to overall MN formation to different extents.

  2. Renaissance of morphological studies: the examination of functional structures in living animal organs using the in vivo cryotechnique.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ohno, Shinichi; Saitoh, Yurika; Ohno, Nobuhiko; Terada, Nobuo

    2017-01-01

    Medical and biological scientists wish to understand the in vivo structures of the cells and tissues that make up living animal organs, as well as the locations of their molecular components. Recently, the live imaging of animal cells and tissues with fluorescence-labeled proteins produced via gene manipulation has become increasingly common. Therefore, it is important to ensure that findings derived from histological or immunohistochemical tissue sections of living animal organs are compatible with those obtained from live images of the same organs, which can be assessed using recently developed digital imaging techniques. Over the past two decades, we have performed immunohistochemical and morphological studies of the cells and tissues in living animal organs using a novel in vivo cryotechnique. The use of a specially designed liquid cryogen system with or without a cryoknife during this cryotechnique solved the technical problems that inevitably arise during the conventional preparation methods employed prior to light or electron microscopic examinations. Our in vivo cryotechnique has been found to be extremely useful for arresting transient physiological processes in cells and tissues and for maintaining their functional components-such as rapidly changing signaling molecules, membrane channels, or receptors-in situ. The purpose of the present review is to describe the basic mechanism underlying cryotechniques and the significance of our in vivo cryotechnique. In addition, it describes various morphological or immunohistochemical findings, observations made using quantum dots, and a Raman cryomicroscopy-based method for assessing oxygen saturation in the erythrocytes flowing through intestinal tissues.

  3. Living arrangements of young adults living independently: evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Short, K S; Garner, T I

    1990-12-01

    A cross-country comparison of the impact of socioeconomic factors on household formation by young adults in the 15-24 age group is presented. "Of those young people living independently (not in their parental homes), how do incomes from various sources affect their decision whether to live alone or with others? The sample did not include all persons in the 15-24 age group, only those living independently. A logit analysis of the living alone question was conducted using data from five countries (Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States) included in the LIS [Luxembourg Income Study] data base to determine whether differences across countries exist." excerpt

  4. Safe sorting of GFP-transduced live cells for subsequent culture using a modified FACS vantage

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sørensen, T U; Gram, G J; Nielsen, S D

    1999-01-01

    BACKGROUND: A stream-in-air cell sorter enables rapid sorting to a high purity, but it is not well suited for sorting of infectious material due to the risk of airborne spread to the surroundings. METHODS: A FACS Vantage cell sorter was modified for safe use with potentially HIV infected cells...... culture. CONCLUSIONS: Sorting of live infected cells can be performed safely and with no deleterious effects on vector expression using the modified FACS Vantage instrument....

  5. Simulations of living cell origins using a cellular automata model.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ishida, Takeshi

    2014-04-01

    Understanding the generalized mechanisms of cell self-assembly is fundamental for applications in various fields, such as mass producing molecular machines in nanotechnology. Thus, the details of real cellular reaction networks and the necessary conditions for self-organized cells must be elucidated. We constructed a 2-dimensional cellular automata model to investigate the emergence of biological cell formation, which incorporated a looped membrane and a membrane-bound information system (akin to a genetic code and gene expression system). In particular, with an artificial reaction system coupled with a thermal system, the simultaneous formation of a looped membrane and an inner reaction process resulted in a more stable structure. These double structures inspired the primitive biological cell formation process from chemical evolution stage. With a model to simulate cellular self-organization in a 2-dimensional cellular automata model, 3 phenomena could be realized: (1) an inner reaction system developed as an information carrier precursor (akin to DNA); (2) a cell border emerged (akin to a cell membrane); and (3) these cell structures could divide into 2. This double-structured cell was considered to be a primary biological cell. The outer loop evolved toward a lipid bilayer membrane, and inner polymeric particles evolved toward precursor information carriers (evolved toward DNA). This model did not completely clarify all the necessary and sufficient conditions for biological cell self-organization. Further, our virtual cells remained unstable and fragile. However, the "garbage bag model" of Dyson proposed that the first living cells were deficient; thus, it would be reasonable that the earliest cells were more unstable and fragile than the simplest current unicellular organisms.

  6. Direct measurement of catalase activity in living cells and tissue biopsies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scaglione, Christine N; Xu, Qijin; Ramanujan, V Krishnan

    2016-01-29

    Spatiotemporal regulation of enzyme-substrate interactions governs the decision-making steps in biological systems. Enzymes, being functional units of every living cell, contribute to the macromolecular stability of cell survival, proliferation and hence are vital windows to unraveling the biological complexity. Experimental measurements capturing this dynamics of enzyme-substrate interactions in real time add value to this understanding. Furthermore these measurements, upon validation in realistic biological specimens such as clinical biopsies - can further improve our capability in disease diagnostics and treatment monitoring. Towards this direction, we describe here a novel, high-sensitive measurement system for measuring diffusion-limited enzyme-substrate kinetics in real time. Using catalase (enzyme) and hydrogen peroxide (substrate) as the example pair, we demonstrate that this system is capable of direct measurement of catalase activity in vitro and the measured kinetics follows the classical Michaelis-Menten reaction kinetics. We further demonstrate the system performance by measuring catalase activity in living cells and in very small amounts of liver biopsies (down to 1 μg total protein). Catalase-specific enzyme activity is demonstrated by genetic and pharmacological tools. Finally we show the clinically-relevant diagnostic capability of our system by comparing the catalase activities in liver biopsies from young and old mouse (liver and serum) samples. We discuss the potential applicability of this system in clinical diagnostics as well as in intraoperative surgical settings. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Wavelength-Dependent Differential Interference Contrast Microscopy: Selectively Imaging Nanoparticle Probes in Live Cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sun, Wei; Wang, Gufeng; Fang, Ning; and Yeung, Edward S.

    2009-11-15

    Gold and silver nanoparticles display extraordinarily large apparent refractive indices near their plasmon resonance (PR) wavelengths. These nanoparticles show good contrast in a narrow spectral band but are poorly resolved at other wavelengths in differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy. The wavelength dependence of DIC contrast of gold/silver nanoparticles is interpreted in terms of Mie's theory and DIC working principles. We further exploit this wavelength dependence by modifying a DIC microscope to enable simultaneous imaging at two wavelengths. We demonstrate that gold/silver nanoparticles immobilized on the same glass slides through hybridization can be differentiated and imaged separately. High-contrast, video-rate images of living cells can be recorded both with and without illuminating the gold nanoparticle probes, providing definitive probe identification. Dual-wavelength DIC microscopy thus presents a new approach to the simultaneous detection of multiple probes of interest for high-speed live-cell imaging.

  8. A single-cell scraper based on an atomic force microscope for detaching a living cell from a substrate

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Iwata, Futoshi, E-mail: iwata.futoshi@shizuoka.ac.jp [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Shizuoka University, Johoku, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu 432-8561 (Japan); Research Institute of Electronics, Shizuoka University, Johoku, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu 432-8011 (Japan); Adachi, Makoto; Hashimoto, Shigetaka [Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Shizuoka University, Johoku, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu 432-8561 (Japan)

    2015-10-07

    We describe an atomic force microscope (AFM) manipulator that can detach a single, living adhesion cell from its substrate without compromising the cell's viability. The micrometer-scale cell scraper designed for this purpose was fabricated from an AFM micro cantilever using focused ion beam milling. The homemade AFM equipped with the scraper was compact and standalone and could be mounted on a sample stage of an inverted optical microscope. It was possible to move the scraper using selectable modes of operation, either a manual mode with a haptic device or a computer-controlled mode. The viability of the scraped single cells was evaluated using a fluorescence dye of calcein-acetoxymethl ester. Single cells detached from the substrate were collected by aspiration into a micropipette capillary glass using an electro-osmotic pump. As a demonstration, single HeLa cells were selectively detached from the substrate and collected by the micropipette. It was possible to recultivate HeLa cells from the single cells collected using the system.

  9. Local Nucleosome Dynamics Facilitate Chromatin Accessibility in Living Mammalian Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Saera Hihara

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available Genome information, which is three-dimensionally organized within cells as chromatin, is searched and read by various proteins for diverse cell functions. Although how the protein factors find their targets remains unclear, the dynamic and flexible nature of chromatin is likely crucial. Using a combined approach of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, single-nucleosome imaging, and Monte Carlo computer simulations, we demonstrate local chromatin dynamics in living mammalian cells. We show that similar to interphase chromatin, dense mitotic chromosomes also have considerable chromatin accessibility. For both interphase and mitotic chromatin, we observed local fluctuation of individual nucleosomes (∼50 nm movement/30 ms, which is caused by confined Brownian motion. Inhibition of these local dynamics by crosslinking impaired accessibility in the dense chromatin regions. Our findings show that local nucleosome dynamics drive chromatin accessibility. We propose that this local nucleosome fluctuation is the basis for scanning genome information.

  10. Endogenous Fluorescence Signatures in Living Pluripotent Stem Cells Change with Loss of Potency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Squirrell, Jayne M.; Fong, Jimmy J.; Ariza, Carlos A.; Mael, Amber; Meyer, Kassondra; Shevde, Nirupama K.; Roopra, Avtar; Lyons, Gary E.; Kamp, Timothy J.; Eliceiri, Kevin W.; Ogle, Brenda M.

    2012-01-01

    The therapeutic potential of stem cells is limited by the non-uniformity of their phenotypic state. Thus it would be advantageous to noninvasively monitor stem cell status. Driven by this challenge, we employed multidimensional multiphoton microscopy to quantify changes in endogenous fluorescence occurring with pluripotent stem cell differentiation. We found that global and cellular-scale fluorescence lifetime of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) and murine embryonic stem cells (mESC) consistently decreased with differentiation. Less consistent were trends in endogenous fluorescence intensity with differentiation, suggesting intensity is more readily impacted by nuances of species and scale of analysis. What emerges is a practical and accessible approach to evaluate, and ultimately enrich, living stem cell populations based on changes in metabolism that could be exploited for both research and clinical applications. PMID:22952742

  11. Live celloidosome structures based on the assembly of individual cells by colloid interactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fakhrullin, Rawil F; Brandy, Marie-Laure; Cayre, Olivier J; Velev, Orlin D; Paunov, Vesselin N

    2010-10-14

    A new class of colloid structures, celloidosomes, has been developed which represent hollow microcapsules whose membranes consist of a single monolayer of living cells. Two routes for producing these structures were designed based on templating of: (i) air bubbles and (ii) anisotropic microcrystals of calcium carbonate with living cells, which allowed us to fabricate celloidosomes of spherical, rhombohedral and needle-like morphologies. Air microbubbles were templated by yeast cells coated with poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH), then coated with carboxymethylcellulose and rehydrated resulting in the formation of spherical multicellular structures. Similarly, calcium carbonate microcrystals of anisotropic shapes were coated with several consecutive layers of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes to obtain a positive surface charge which was used to immobilise yeast cells coated with anionic polyelectrolyte of their surfaces. After dissolving of sacrificial cores, hollow multicellular structures were obtained. The viability of the cells in the produced structures was confirmed by using fluorescein diacetate. In order to optimize the separation of celloidosomes from free cells magnetic nanoparticles were immobilised onto the surface of templates prior to the cells deposition, which greatly facilitated the separation using a permanent magnet. Two alternative approaches were developed to form celloidosome structures using magnetically functionalised core-shell microparticles which resulted in the formation of celloidosomes with needle-like and cubic-like geometries which follows the original morphology of the calcium carbonate microcrystals. Our methods for fabrication of celloidosomes may found applications in the development of novel symbiotic bio-structures, artificial multicellular organisms and in tissue engineering. The unusual structure of celloidosomes resembles the primitive forms of multicellular species, like Volvox, and other algae and could be regarded as

  12. Characterization of Fluorescent Proteins for Three- and Four-Color Live-Cell Imaging in S. cerevisiae.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Higuchi-Sanabria, Ryo; Garcia, Enrique J; Tomoiaga, Delia; Munteanu, Emilia L; Feinstein, Paul; Pon, Liza A

    2016-01-01

    Saccharomyces cerevisiae are widely used for imaging fluorescently tagged protein fusions. Fluorescent proteins can easily be inserted into yeast genes at their chromosomal locus, by homologous recombination, for expression of tagged proteins at endogenous levels. This is especially useful for incorporation of multiple fluorescent protein fusions into a single strain, which can be challenging in organisms where genetic manipulation is more complex. However, the availability of optimal fluorescent protein combinations for 3-color imaging is limited. Here, we have characterized a combination of fluorescent proteins, mTFP1/mCitrine/mCherry for multicolor live cell imaging in S. cerevisiae. This combination can be used with conventional blue dyes, such as DAPI, for potential four-color live cell imaging.

  13. Combining PALM and SOFI for quantitative imaging of focal adhesions in living cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deschout, Hendrik; Lukes, Tomas; Sharipov, Azat; Feletti, Lely; Lasser, Theo; Radenovic, Aleksandra

    2017-02-01

    Focal adhesions are complicated assemblies of hundreds of proteins that allow cells to sense their extracellular matrix and adhere to it. Although most focal adhesion proteins have been identified, their spatial organization in living cells remains challenging to observe. Photo-activated localization microscopy (PALM) is an interesting technique for this purpose, especially since it allows estimation of molecular parameters such as the number of fluorophores. However, focal adhesions are dynamic entities, requiring a temporal resolution below one minute, which is difficult to achieve with PALM. In order to address this problem, we merged PALM with super-resolution optical fluctuation imaging (SOFI) by applying both techniques to the same data. Since SOFI tolerates an overlap of single molecule images, it can improve the temporal resolution compared to PALM. Moreover, an adaptation called balanced SOFI (bSOFI) allows estimation of molecular parameters, such as the fluorophore density. We therefore performed simulations in order to assess PALM and SOFI for quantitative imaging of dynamic structures. We demonstrated the potential of our PALM-SOFI concept as a quantitative imaging framework by investigating moving focal adhesions in living cells.

  14. Stress Management in Cyst-Forming Free-Living Protists: Programmed Cell Death and/or Encystment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Naveed Ahmed; Iqbal, Junaid

    2015-01-01

    In the face of harsh conditions and given a choice, a cell may (i) undergo programmed cell death, (ii) transform into a cancer cell, or (iii) enclose itself into a cyst form. In metazoans, the available evidence suggests that cellular machinery exists only to execute or avoid programmed cell death, while the ability to form a cyst was either lost or never developed. For cyst-forming free-living protists, here we pose the question whether the ability to encyst was gained at the expense of the programmed cell death or both functions coexist to counter unfavorable environmental conditions with mutually exclusive phenotypes. PMID:25648302

  15. Stress Management in Cyst-Forming Free-Living Protists: Programmed Cell Death and/or Encystment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naveed Ahmed Khan

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In the face of harsh conditions and given a choice, a cell may (i undergo programmed cell death, (ii transform into a cancer cell, or (iii enclose itself into a cyst form. In metazoans, the available evidence suggests that cellular machinery exists only to execute or avoid programmed cell death, while the ability to form a cyst was either lost or never developed. For cyst-forming free-living protists, here we pose the question whether the ability to encyst was gained at the expense of the programmed cell death or both functions coexist to counter unfavorable environmental conditions with mutually exclusive phenotypes.

  16. A novel peptide-based fluorescence chemosensor for selective imaging of hydrogen sulfide both in living cells and zebrafish.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Peng; Wu, Jiang; Di, Cuixia; Zhou, Rong; Zhang, Hong; Su, Pingru; Xu, Cong; Zhou, Panpan; Ge, Yushu; Liu, Dan; Liu, Weisheng; Tang, Yu

    2017-06-15

    Hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) plays an important role as a signaling compound (gasotransmitter) in living systems. However, the development of an efficient imaging chemosensor of H 2 S in live animals is a challenging field for chemists. Herein, a novel peptide-based fluorescence chemosensor L-Cu was designed and synthesized on the basis of the copper chelating with the peptide ligand (FITC-Ahx-Ser-Pro-Gly-His-NH 2 , L), and its H 2 S sensing ability has been evaluated both in living cells and zebrafish. The peptide backbone and Cu 2+ -removal sensing mechanism are used to deliver rapid response time, high sensitivity, and good biocompatibility. After a fast fluorescence quench by Cu 2+ coordinated with L, the fluorescence of L is recovered by adding S 2- to form insoluble copper sulfide in aqueous solution with a detection limit for hydrogen sulfide measured to be 31nM. Furthermore, the fluorescence chemosensor L-Cu showed excellent cell permeation and low biotoxicity to realize the intracellular biosensing, L-Cu has also been applied to image hydrogen sulfide in live zebrafish larvae. We expect that this peptide-based fluorescence chemosensor L-Cu can be used to study H 2 S-related chemical biology in physiological and pathological events. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. High-content live cell imaging with RNA probes: advancements in high-throughput antimalarial drug discovery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cervantes Serena

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Malaria, a major public health issue in developing nations, is responsible for more than one million deaths a year. The most lethal species, Plasmodium falciparum, causes up to 90% of fatalities. Drug resistant strains to common therapies have emerged worldwide and recent artemisinin-based combination therapy failures hasten the need for new antimalarial drugs. Discovering novel compounds to be used as antimalarials is expedited by the use of a high-throughput screen (HTS to detect parasite growth and proliferation. Fluorescent dyes that bind to DNA have replaced expensive traditional radioisotope incorporation for HTS growth assays, but do not give additional information regarding the parasite stage affected by the drug and a better indication of the drug's mode of action. Live cell imaging with RNA dyes, which correlates with cell growth and proliferation, has been limited by the availability of successful commercial dyes. Results After screening a library of newly synthesized stryrl dyes, we discovered three RNA binding dyes that provide morphological details of live parasites. Utilizing an inverted confocal imaging platform, live cell imaging of parasites increases parasite detection, improves the spatial and temporal resolution of the parasite under drug treatments, and can resolve morphological changes in individual cells. Conclusion This simple one-step technique is suitable for automation in a microplate format for novel antimalarial compound HTS. We have developed a new P. falciparum RNA high-content imaging growth inhibition assay that is robust with time and energy efficiency.

  18. Deposition of tropoelastin into the extracellular matrix requires a competent elastic fiber scaffold but not live cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kozel, Beth A; Ciliberto, Christopher H; Mecham, Robert P

    2004-04-01

    The initial steps of elastic fiber assembly were investigated using an in vitro assembly model in which purified recombinant tropoelastin (rbTE) was added to cultures of live or dead cells. The ability of tropoelastin to associate with preexisting elastic fibers or microfibrils in the extracellular matrix was then assessed by immunofluorescence microscopy using species-specific tropoelastin antibodies. Results show that rbTE can associate with elastic fiber components in the absence of live cells through a process that does not depend on crosslink formation. Time course studies show a transformation of the deposited protein from an initial globular appearance early in culture to a more fibrous structure as the matrix matures. Deposition required the C-terminal region of tropoelastin and correlated with the presence of preexisting elastic fibers or microfibrils. Association of exogenously added tropoelastin to the cellular extracellular matrix was inhibited by the addition of heparan sulfate but not chondroitin sulfate sugars. Together, these results suggest that the matrix elaborated by the cell is sufficient for the initial deposition of tropoelastin in the extracellular space and that elastin assembly may be influenced by the composition of sulfated proteoglycans in the matrix.

  19. Laser-induced surface deformation microscope for the study of the dynamic viscoelasticity of plasma membrane in a living cell.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morisaku, Toshinori; Yui, Hiroharu

    2018-05-15

    A laser-induced surface deformation (LISD) microscope is developed and applied to measurement of the dynamic relaxation responses of the plasma membrane in a living cell. A laser beam is tightly focused on an optional area of cell surface and the focused light induces microscopic deformation on the surface via radiation pressure. The LISD microscope not only allows non-contact and destruction-free measurement but provides power spectra of the surface responses depending on the frequency of the intensity of the laser beam. An optical system for the LISD is equipped via a microscope, allowing us to measure the relaxation responses in sub-cellular-sized regions of the plasma membrane. In addition, the forced oscillation caused by the radiation pressure for surface deformation extends the upper limit of the frequency range in the obtained power spectra to 106 Hz, which enables us to measure relaxation responses in local regions within the plasma membrane. From differences in power-law exponents at higher frequencies, it is realized that a cancerous cell obeys a weaker single power-law than a normal fibroblast cell. Furthermore, the power spectrum of a keratinocyte cell obeys a power-law with two exponents, indicating that alternative mechanical models to a conventional soft glassy rheology model (where single power-laws explain cells' responses below about 103 Hz) are needed for the understanding over a wider frequency range. The LISD microscope would contribute to investigation of microscopic cell rheology, which is important for clarifying the mechanisms of cell migration and tissue construction.

  20. Synthesis, biological evaluation, and live cell imaging of novel fluorescent duocarmycin analogs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tietze, Lutz F; Behrendt, Frank; Pestel, Galina F; Schuberth, Ingrid; Mitkovski, Mišo

    2012-11-01

    For a better understanding of the mode of action of duocarmycin and its analogs, the novel fluorescent duocarmycin derivatives 13-15 and 17b-19b were synthesized, and their bioactivity as well as their cellular uptake investigated using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) in live-cell imaging experiments. Copyright © 2012 Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta AG, Zürich.

  1. The Next Frontier: Quantitative Biochemistry in Living Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Honigmann, Alf; Nadler, André

    2018-01-09

    Researchers striving to convert biology into an exact science foremost rely on structural biology and biochemical reconstitution approaches to obtain quantitative data. However, cell biological research is moving at an ever-accelerating speed into areas where these approaches lose much of their edge. Intrinsically unstructured proteins and biochemical interaction networks composed of interchangeable, multivalent, and unspecific interactions pose unique challenges to quantitative biology, as do processes that occur in discrete cellular microenvironments. Here we argue that a conceptual change in our way of conducting biochemical experiments is required to take on these new challenges. We propose that reconstitution of cellular processes in vitro should be much more focused on mimicking the cellular environment in vivo, an approach that requires detailed knowledge of the material properties of cellular compartments, essentially requiring a material science of the cell. In a similar vein, we suggest that quantitative biochemical experiments in vitro should be accompanied by corresponding experiments in vivo, as many newly relevant cellular processes are highly context-dependent. In essence, this constitutes a call for chemical biologists to convert their discipline from a proof-of-principle science to an area that could rightfully be called quantitative biochemistry in living cells. In this essay, we discuss novel techniques and experimental strategies with regard to their potential to fulfill such ambitious aims.

  2. Atomic force microscopy stiffness tomography on living Arabidopsis thaliana cells reveals the mechanical properties of surface and deep cell-wall layers during growth.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Radotić, Ksenija; Roduit, Charles; Simonović, Jasna; Hornitschek, Patricia; Fankhauser, Christian; Mutavdžić, Dragosav; Steinbach, Gabor; Dietler, Giovanni; Kasas, Sandor

    2012-08-08

    Cell-wall mechanical properties play a key role in the growth and the protection of plants. However, little is known about genuine wall mechanical properties and their growth-related dynamics at subcellular resolution and in living cells. Here, we used atomic force microscopy (AFM) stiffness tomography to explore stiffness distribution in the cell wall of suspension-cultured Arabidopsis thaliana as a model of primary, growing cell wall. For the first time that we know of, this new imaging technique was performed on living single cells of a higher plant, permitting monitoring of the stiffness distribution in cell-wall layers as a function of the depth and its evolution during the different growth phases. The mechanical measurements were correlated with changes in the composition of the cell wall, which were revealed by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. In the beginning and end of cell growth, the average stiffness of the cell wall was low and the wall was mechanically homogenous, whereas in the exponential growth phase, the average wall stiffness increased, with increasing heterogeneity. In this phase, the difference between the superficial and deep wall stiffness was highest. FTIR spectra revealed a relative increase in the polysaccharide/lignin content. Copyright © 2012 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Time-resolved analysis of DNA-protein interactions in living cells by UV laser pulses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nebbioso, Angela; Benedetti, Rosaria; Conte, Mariarosaria; Carafa, Vincenzo; De Bellis, Floriana; Shaik, Jani; Matarese, Filomena; Della Ventura, Bartolomeo; Gesuele, Felice; Velotta, Raffaele; Martens, Joost H A; Stunnenberg, Hendrik G; Altucci, Carlo; Altucci, Lucia

    2017-09-15

    Interactions between DNA and proteins are mainly studied through chemical procedures involving bi-functional reagents, mostly formaldehyde. Chromatin immunoprecipitation is used to identify the binding between transcription factors (TFs) and chromatin, and to evaluate the occurrence and impact of histone/DNA modifications. The current bottleneck in probing DNA-protein interactions using these approaches is caused by the fact that chemical crosslinkers do not discriminate direct and indirect bindings or short-lived chromatin occupancy. Here, we describe a novel application of UV laser-induced (L-) crosslinking and demonstrate that a combination of chemical and L-crosslinking is able to distinguish between direct and indirect DNA-protein interactions in a small number of living cells. The spatial and temporal dynamics of TF bindings to chromatin and their role in gene expression regulation may thus be assessed. The combination of chemical and L-crosslinking offers an exciting and unprecedented tool for biomedical applications.

  4. A quantitative method to track protein translocation between intracellular compartments in real-time in live cells using weighted local variance image analysis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Guillaume Calmettes

    Full Text Available The genetic expression of cloned fluorescent proteins coupled to time-lapse fluorescence microscopy has opened the door to the direct visualization of a wide range of molecular interactions in living cells. In particular, the dynamic translocation of proteins can now be explored in real time at the single-cell level. Here we propose a reliable, easy-to-implement, quantitative image processing method to assess protein translocation in living cells based on the computation of spatial variance maps of time-lapse images. The method is first illustrated and validated on simulated images of a fluorescently-labeled protein translocating from mitochondria to cytoplasm, and then applied to experimental data obtained with fluorescently-labeled hexokinase 2 in different cell types imaged by regular or confocal microscopy. The method was found to be robust with respect to cell morphology changes and mitochondrial dynamics (fusion, fission, movement during the time-lapse imaging. Its ease of implementation should facilitate its application to a broad spectrum of time-lapse imaging studies.

  5. Molecular Theory of the Living Cell Concepts, Molecular Mechanisms, and Biomedical Applications

    CERN Document Server

    Ji, Sungchul

    2012-01-01

    This book presents a comprehensive molecular theory of the living cell based on over thirty concepts, principles and laws imported from thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, chemical kinetics, informatics, computer science, linguistics, semiotics, and philosophy. The author formulates physically, chemically and enzymologically realistic molecular mechanisms to account for the basic living processes such as ligand-receptor interactions, protein folding, single-molecule enzymic catalysis, force-generating mechanisms in molecular motors, signal transduction, regulation of the genome-wide RNA metabolism, morphogenesis, the micro-macro coupling in coordination dynamics, the origin of life, and the mechanisms of biological evolution itself. Possible solutions to basic and practical problems facing contemporary biology and biomedical sciences have been suggested, including pharmacotheragnostics and personalized medicine.

  6. Three-dimensional nanometry of vesicle transport in living cells using dual-focus imaging optics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watanabe, Tomonobu M.; Sato, Takashi; Gonda, Kohsuke; Higuchi, Hideo

    2007-01-01

    Dual-focus imaging optics for three-dimensional tracking of individual quantum dots has been developed to study the molecular mechanisms of motor proteins in cells. The new system has a high spatial and temporal precision, 2 nm in the x-y sample plane and 5 nm along the z-axis at a frame time of 2 ms. Three-dimensional positions of the vesicles labeled with quantum dots were detected in living cells. Vesicles were transported on the microtubules using 8-nm steps towards the nucleus. The steps had fluctuation of ∼20 nm which were perpendicular to the axis of the microtubule but with the constant distance from the microtubule. The most of perpendicular movement was not synchronized with the 8-nm steps, indicating that dynein moved on microtubules without changing the protofilaments. When the vesicles changed their direction of movement toward the cell membrane, they moved perpendicular with the constant distance from the microtubule. The present method is powerful tool to investigate three dimensional movement of molecules in cells with nanometer and millisecond accuracy

  7. Direct measurement of catalase activity in living cells and tissue biopsies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Scaglione, Christine N.; Xu, Qijin; Ramanujan, V. Krishnan

    2016-01-01

    Spatiotemporal regulation of enzyme-substrate interactions governs the decision-making steps in biological systems. Enzymes, being functional units of every living cell, contribute to the macromolecular stability of cell survival, proliferation and hence are vital windows to unraveling the biological complexity. Experimental measurements capturing this dynamics of enzyme-substrate interactions in real time add value to this understanding. Furthermore these measurements, upon validation in realistic biological specimens such as clinical biopsies – can further improve our capability in disease diagnostics and treatment monitoring. Towards this direction, we describe here a novel, high-sensitive measurement system for measuring diffusion-limited enzyme-substrate kinetics in real time. Using catalase (enzyme) and hydrogen peroxide (substrate) as the example pair, we demonstrate that this system is capable of direct measurement of catalase activity in vitro and the measured kinetics follows the classical Michaelis-Menten reaction kinetics. We further demonstrate the system performance by measuring catalase activity in living cells and in very small amounts of liver biopsies (down to 1 μg total protein). Catalase-specific enzyme activity is demonstrated by genetic and pharmacological tools. Finally we show the clinically-relevant diagnostic capability of our system by comparing the catalase activities in liver biopsies from young and old mouse (liver and serum) samples. We discuss the potential applicability of this system in clinical diagnostics as well as in intraoperative surgical settings. - Highlights: • A novel, direct measurement of Catalase enzyme activity via, oxygen sensing method. • Steady-stateprofiles of Catalase activity follow the Michaelis-Menten Kinetics. • Catalase-specific activity demonstrated using genetic and pharmacological tools. • Overcomes limitations of spectroscopic methods and indirect calorimetric approaches. • Clear

  8. Direct measurement of catalase activity in living cells and tissue biopsies

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Scaglione, Christine N.; Xu, Qijin; Ramanujan, V. Krishnan, E-mail: Ramanujanv@csmc.edu

    2016-01-29

    Spatiotemporal regulation of enzyme-substrate interactions governs the decision-making steps in biological systems. Enzymes, being functional units of every living cell, contribute to the macromolecular stability of cell survival, proliferation and hence are vital windows to unraveling the biological complexity. Experimental measurements capturing this dynamics of enzyme-substrate interactions in real time add value to this understanding. Furthermore these measurements, upon validation in realistic biological specimens such as clinical biopsies – can further improve our capability in disease diagnostics and treatment monitoring. Towards this direction, we describe here a novel, high-sensitive measurement system for measuring diffusion-limited enzyme-substrate kinetics in real time. Using catalase (enzyme) and hydrogen peroxide (substrate) as the example pair, we demonstrate that this system is capable of direct measurement of catalase activity in vitro and the measured kinetics follows the classical Michaelis-Menten reaction kinetics. We further demonstrate the system performance by measuring catalase activity in living cells and in very small amounts of liver biopsies (down to 1 μg total protein). Catalase-specific enzyme activity is demonstrated by genetic and pharmacological tools. Finally we show the clinically-relevant diagnostic capability of our system by comparing the catalase activities in liver biopsies from young and old mouse (liver and serum) samples. We discuss the potential applicability of this system in clinical diagnostics as well as in intraoperative surgical settings. - Highlights: • A novel, direct measurement of Catalase enzyme activity via, oxygen sensing method. • Steady-stateprofiles of Catalase activity follow the Michaelis-Menten Kinetics. • Catalase-specific activity demonstrated using genetic and pharmacological tools. • Overcomes limitations of spectroscopic methods and indirect calorimetric approaches. • Clear

  9. Fabrication of gold nanodot arrays on a transparent substrate as a nanobioplatform for label-free visualization of living cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jung, Mi; El-Said, Waleed Ahmed; Choi, Jeong-Woo, E-mail: jwchoi@sogang.ac.kr [Interdisciplinary Program of Integrated Biotechnology, Sogang University, Seoul 121-742 (Korea, Republic of)

    2011-06-10

    Two-dimensional gold (Au) nanodot arrays on a transparent substrate were fabricated for imaging of living cells. A nanoporous alumina mask with large-area coverage capability was prepared by a two-step chemical wet etching process after a second anodization. Highly ordered Au nanodot arrays were formed on indium-tin-oxide (ITO) glass using very thin nanoporous alumina of approximately 200 nm thickness as an evaporation mask. The large-area Au nanodot arrays on ITO glass were modified with RGD peptide (arginine; glycine; aspartic acid) containing a cysteine (Cys) residue and then used to immobilize human cancer HeLa cells, the morphology of which was observed by confocal microscopy. The confocal micrographs of living HeLa cells on Au nanodot arrays revealed enhanced contrast and resolution, which enabled discernment of cytoplasmic organelles more clearly. These results suggest that two-dimensional Au nanodot arrays modified with RGD peptide on ITO glass have potential as a biocompatible nanobioplatform for the label-free visualization and adhesion of living cells.

  10. Immobilisation of living bacteria for AFM imaging under physiological conditions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Louise Meyer, Rikke; Zhou, Xingfei; Tang, Lone; Arpanaei, Ayyoob; Kingshott, Peter; Besenbacher, Flemming

    2010-01-01

    Atomic force microscopy (AFM) holds great potential for studying the nanoscale surface structures of living cells, and to measure their interactions with abiotic surfaces, other cells, or specific biomolecules. However, the application of AFM in microbiology is challenging due to the difficulty of immobilising bacterial cells to a flat surface without changing the cell surface properties or cell viability. We have performed an extensive and thorough study of how to functionalise surfaces in order to immobilise living bacteria for AFM studies in liquid environments. Our aim was to develop a scheme which allows bacterial cells to be immobilised to a flat surface with sufficient strength to avoid detachment during the AFM scanning, and without affecting cell surface chemistry, structure, and viability. We compare and evaluate published methods, and present a new, reproducible, and generally applicable scheme for immobilising bacteria cells for an AFM imaging. Bacterial cells were immobilised to modified glass surfaces by physical confinement of cells in microwells, physisorption to positively charged surfaces, covalent binding to amine- or carboxyl-terminated surfaces, and adsorption to surfaces coated with highly adhesive polyphenolic proteins originating from the mussel Mytilus edulis. Living cells could be immobilised with all of these approaches, but many cells detached when immobilised by electrostatic interactions and imaged in buffers like PBS or MOPS. Cells were more firmly attached when immobilised by covalent binding, although some cells still detached during AFM imaging. The most successful method revealed was immobilisation by polyphenolic proteins, which facilitated firm immobilisation of the cells. Furthermore, the cell viability was not affected by this immobilisation scheme, and adhesive proteins thus provide a fast, reproducible, and generally applicable scheme for immobilising living bacteria for an AFM imaging.

  11. Live-cell microscopy reveals small molecule inhibitor effects on MAPK pathway dynamics.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel J Anderson

    Full Text Available Oncogenic mutations in the mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK pathway are prevalent in human tumors, making this pathway a target of drug development efforts. Recently, ATP-competitive Raf inhibitors were shown to cause MAPK pathway activation via Raf kinase priming in wild-type BRaf cells and tumors, highlighting the need for a thorough understanding of signaling in the context of small molecule kinase inhibitors. Here, we present critical improvements in cell-line engineering and image analysis coupled with automated image acquisition that allow for the simultaneous identification of cellular localization of multiple MAPK pathway components (KRas, CRaf, Mek1 and Erk2. We use these assays in a systematic study of the effect of small molecule inhibitors across the MAPK cascade either as single agents or in combination. Both Raf inhibitor priming as well as the release from negative feedback induced by Mek and Erk inhibitors cause translocation of CRaf to the plasma membrane via mechanisms that are additive in pathway activation. Analysis of Erk activation and sub-cellular localization upon inhibitor treatments reveals differential inhibition and activation with the Raf inhibitors AZD628 and GDC0879 respectively. Since both single agent and combination studies of Raf and Mek inhibitors are currently in the clinic, our assays provide valuable insight into their effects on MAPK signaling in live cells.

  12. Long-Term Live Cell Imaging Reveals New Roles For Salmonella Effector Proteins SseG and SteA

    Science.gov (United States)

    McQuate, Sarah E.; Young, Alexandra M.; Silva-Herzog, Eugenia; Bunker, Eric; Hernandez, Mateo; de Chaumont, Fabrice; Liu, Xuedong; Detweiler, Corrella S.; Palmer, Amy E.

    2016-01-01

    Summary Salmonella Typhimurium is an intracellular bacterial pathogen that infects both epithelial cells and macrophages. Salmonella effector proteins, which are translocated into the host cell and manipulate host cell components, control the ability to replicate and/or survive in host cells. Due to the complexity and heterogeneity of Salmonella infections, there is growing recognition of the need for single cell and live-cell imaging approaches to identify and characterize the diversity of cellular phenotypes and how they evolve over time. Here we establish a pipeline for long-term (16 hours) live-cell imaging of infected cells and subsequent image analysis methods. We apply this pipeline to track bacterial replication within the Salmonella-containing vacuole in epithelial cells, quantify vacuolar replication versus survival in macrophages, and investigate the role of individual effector proteins in mediating these parameters. This approach revealed that dispersed bacteria can coalesce at later stages of infection, that the effector protein SseG influences the propensity for cytosolic hyperreplication in epithelial cells, and that while SteA only has a subtle effect on vacuolar replication in epithelial cells, it has a profound impact on infection parameters in immunocompetent macrophages, suggesting differential roles for effector proteins in different infection models. PMID:27376507

  13. Bioanalytical and chemical sensors using living taste, olfactory, and neural cells and tissues: a short review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Chunsheng; Lillehoj, Peter B; Wang, Ping

    2015-11-07

    Biosensors utilizing living tissues and cells have recently gained significant attention as functional devices for chemical sensing and biochemical analysis. These devices integrate biological components (i.e. single cells, cell networks, tissues) with micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)-based sensors and transducers. Various types of cells and tissues derived from natural and bioengineered sources have been used as recognition and sensing elements, which are generally characterized by high sensitivity and specificity. This review summarizes the state of the art in tissue- and cell-based biosensing platforms with an emphasis on those using taste, olfactory, and neural cells and tissues. Many of these devices employ unique integration strategies and sensing schemes based on sensitive transducers including microelectrode arrays (MEAs), field effect transistors (FETs), and light-addressable potentiometric sensors (LAPSs). Several groups have coupled these hybrid biosensors with microfluidics which offers added benefits of small sample volumes and enhanced automation. While this technology is currently limited to lab settings due to the limited stability of living biological components, further research to enhance their robustness will enable these devices to be employed in field and clinical settings.

  14. A High-Content Live-Cell Viability Assay and Its Validation on a Diverse 12K Compound Screen.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chiaravalli, Jeanne; Glickman, J Fraser

    2017-08-01

    We have developed a new high-content cytotoxicity assay using live cells, called "ImageTOX." We used a high-throughput fluorescence microscope system, image segmentation software, and the combination of Hoechst 33342 and SYTO 17 to simultaneously score the relative size and the intensity of the nuclei, the nuclear membrane permeability, and the cell number in a 384-well microplate format. We then performed a screen of 12,668 diverse compounds and compared the results to a standard cytotoxicity assay. The ImageTOX assay identified similar sets of compounds to the standard cytotoxicity assay, while identifying more compounds having adverse effects on cell structure, earlier in treatment time. The ImageTOX assay uses inexpensive commercially available reagents and facilitates the use of live cells in toxicity screens. Furthermore, we show that we can measure the kinetic profile of compound toxicity in a high-content, high-throughput format, following the same set of cells over an extended period of time.

  15. Horizontal gene transfers with or without cell fusions in all categories of the living matter.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sinkovics, Joseph G

    2011-01-01

    This article reviews the history of widespread exchanges of genetic segments initiated over 3 billion years ago, to be part of their life style, by sphero-protoplastic cells, the ancestors of archaea, prokaryota, and eukaryota. These primordial cells shared a hostile anaerobic and overheated environment and competed for survival. "Coexist with, or subdue and conquer, expropriate its most useful possessions, or symbiose with it, your competitor" remain cellular life's basic rules. This author emphasizes the role of viruses, both in mediating cell fusions, such as the formation of the first eukaryotic cell(s) from a united crenarchaeon and prokaryota, and the transfer of host cell genes integrated into viral (phages) genomes. After rising above the Darwinian threshold, rigid rules of speciation and vertical inheritance in the three domains of life were established, but horizontal gene transfers with or without cell fusions were never abolished. The author proves with extensive, yet highly selective documentation, that not only unicellular microorganisms, but the most complex multicellular entities of the highest ranks resort to, and practice, cell fusions, and donate and accept horizontally (laterally) transferred genes. Cell fusions and horizontally exchanged genetic materials remain the fundamental attributes and inherent characteristics of the living matter, whether occurring accidentally or sought after intentionally. These events occur to cells stagnating for some 3 milliard years at a lower yet amazingly sophisticated level of evolution, and to cells achieving the highest degree of differentiation, and thus functioning in dependence on the support of a most advanced multicellular host, like those of the human brain. No living cell is completely exempt from gene drains or gene insertions.

  16. Diffraction-unlimited optical imaging of unstained living cells in liquid by electron beam scanning of luminescent environmental cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miyazaki, Hideki T; Kasaya, Takeshi; Takemura, Taro; Hanagata, Nobutaka; Yasuda, Takeshi; Miyazaki, Hiroshi

    2013-11-18

    An environmental cell with a 50-nm-thick cathodoluminescent window was attached to a scanning electron microscope, and diffraction-unlimited near-field optical imaging of unstained living human lung epithelial cells in liquid was demonstrated. Electrons with energies as low as 0.8 - 1.2 kV are sufficiently blocked by the window without damaging the specimens, and form a sub-wavelength-sized illumination light source. A super-resolved optical image of the specimen adhered to the opposite window surface was acquired by a photomultiplier tube placed below. The cells after the observation were proved to stay alive. The image was formed by enhanced dipole radiation or energy transfer, and features as small as 62 nm were resolved.

  17. Quaternary structure of the yeast pheromone receptor Ste2 in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stoneman, Michael R; Paprocki, Joel D; Biener, Gabriel; Yokoi, Koki; Shevade, Aishwarya; Kuchin, Sergei; Raicu, Valerică

    2017-09-01

    Transmembrane proteins known as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) have been shown to form functional homo- or hetero-oligomeric complexes, although agreement has been slow to emerge on whether homo-oligomerization plays functional roles. Here we introduce a platform to determine the identity and abundance of differing quaternary structures formed by GPCRs in living cells following changes in environmental conditions, such as changes in concentrations. The method capitalizes on the intrinsic capability of FRET spectrometry to extract oligomer geometrical information from distributions of FRET efficiencies (or FRET spectrograms) determined from pixel-level imaging of cells, combined with the ability of the statistical ensemble approaches to FRET to probe the proportion of different quaternary structures (such as dimers, rhombus or parallelogram shaped tetramers, etc.) from averages over entire cells. Our approach revealed that the yeast pheromone receptor Ste2 forms predominantly tetramers at average expression levels of 2 to 25 molecules per pixel (2.8·10 -6 to 3.5·10 -5 molecules/nm 2 ), and a mixture of tetramers and octamers at expression levels of 25-100 molecules per pixel (3.5·10 -5 to 1.4·10 -4 molecules/nm 2 ). Ste2 is a class D GPCR found in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae of the mating type a, and binds the pheromone α-factor secreted by cells of the mating type α. Such investigations may inform development of antifungal therapies targeting oligomers of pheromone receptors. The proposed FRET imaging platform may be used to determine the quaternary structure sub-states and stoichiometry of any GPCR and, indeed, any membrane protein in living cells. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Interactions between membrane receptors in cellular membranes edited by Kalina Hristova. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy of Live Keratinocytes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hegde, V; Mason, A; Saliev, T; Smith, F J D; McLean, W H I; Campbell, P A

    2012-01-01

    Scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) is perhaps the least well known technique from the scanning probe microscopy (SPM) family of instruments. As with its more familiar counterpart, atomic force microscopy (AFM), the technique provides high-resolution topographic imaging, with the caveat that target structures must be immersed in a conducting solution so that a controllable ion current may be utilised as the basis for feedback. In operation, this non-contact characteristic of SICM makes it ideal for the study of delicate structures, such as live cells. Moreover, the intrinsic architecture of the instrument, incorporating as it does, a scanned micropipette, lends itself to combination approaches with complementary techniques such as patch-clamp electrophysiology: SICM therefore boasts the capability for both structural and functional imaging. For the present observations, an ICnano S system (Ionscope Ltd., Melbourn, UK) operating in 'hopping mode' was used, with the objective of assessing the instrument's utility for imaging live keratinocytes under physiological buffers. In scans employing cultured HaCaT cells (spontaneously immortalised, human keratinocytes), we compared the qualitative differences of live cells imaged with SICM and AFM, and also with their respective counterparts after chemical fixation in 4% paraformaldehyde. Characteristic surface microvilli were particularly prominent in live cell imaging by SICM. Moreover, time lapse SICM imaging on live cells revealed that changes in the pattern of microvilli could be tracked over time. By comparison, AFM imaging on live cells, even at very low contact forces (< nN), could not routinely image microvilli: rather, an apparently convolved image of the underlying cytoskeleton was instead prevalent. We note that the present incarnation of the commercial instrument falls some way behind the market leading SPMs in terms of technical prowess and scanning speed, however, the intrinsic non-obtrusive nature of

  19. Using in Vitro live-cell imaging to explore chemotherapeutics delivered by lipid-based nanoparticles

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    A.L.B. Seynhaeve (Ann); T.L.M. ten Hagen (Timo)

    2017-01-01

    textabstractConventional imaging techniques can provide detailed information about cellular processes. However, this information is based on static images in an otherwise dynamic system, and successive phases are easily overlooked or misinterpreted. Live-cell imaging and time-lapse microscopy, in

  20. Pregnancy promotes tolerance to future offspring by programming selective dysfunction in long-lived maternal T cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barton, Brendan M; Xu, Rong; Wherry, E John; Porrett, Paige M

    2017-04-01

    Fetal antigen available during pregnancy induces the proliferation of maternal T cells. It is unknown, however, whether these antigen-activated T cells differentiate into long-lived memory T cells that are capable of mediating rapid-recall responses to tissue antigens. To test the hypothesis that pregnancy induces an alternative fate in fetal-specific maternal T cells, we used a murine model to track longitudinally fetal-specific T cells in pregnant and postpartum animals and test the response of these cells when challenged with the same antigen during sequential pregnancy or skin transplantation. Fetal-specific CD8 + T cells were robustly primed during pregnancy but failed to acquire robust effector functions. These primed cells persisted long term in postpartum animals, frequently maintained a programmed death 1 (PD-1) + phenotype, and failed to expand or produce cytokines robustly in response to second pregnancy or skin transplantation. However, whereas there was no impact on second pregnancy as a result of the persistence of fetal-primed memory CD8 + T cells in the mother, skin grafts bearing the same antigen were rejected more rapidly. Altogether, our data suggest that fetal antigen exposure during pregnancy induces the differentiation of long-lived maternal CD8 + T cells with context-dependent, selective effector dysfunction. This programmed effector dysfunction provides temporal and systemic restraint of maternal anti-fetal alloreactivity to promote reproductive fitness efficiently, while preserving potentially protective effector T cell responses. © Society for Leukocyte Biology.

  1. Monitoring ligand-dependent assembly of receptor ternary complexes in live cells by BRETFect.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cotnoir-White, David; El Ezzy, Mohamed; Boulay, Pierre-Luc; Rozendaal, Marieke; Bouvier, Michel; Gagnon, Etienne; Mader, Sylvie

    2018-03-13

    There is currently an unmet need for versatile techniques to monitor the assembly and dynamics of ternary complexes in live cells. Here we describe bioluminescence resonance energy transfer with fluorescence enhancement by combined transfer (BRETFect), a high-throughput technique that enables robust spectrometric detection of ternary protein complexes based on increased energy transfer from a luciferase to a fluorescent acceptor in the presence of a fluorescent intermediate. Its unique donor-intermediate-acceptor relay system is designed so that the acceptor can receive energy either directly from the donor or indirectly via the intermediate in a combined transfer, taking advantage of the entire luciferase emission spectrum. BRETFect was used to study the ligand-dependent cofactor interaction properties of the estrogen receptors ERα and ERβ, which form homo- or heterodimers whose distinctive regulatory properties are difficult to dissect using traditional methods. BRETFect uncovered the relative capacities of hetero- vs. homodimers to recruit receptor-specific cofactors and regulatory proteins, and to interact with common cofactors in the presence of receptor-specific ligands. BRETFect was also used to follow the assembly of ternary complexes between the V2R vasopressin receptor and two different intracellular effectors, illustrating its use for dissection of ternary protein-protein interactions engaged by G protein-coupled receptors. Our results indicate that BRETFect represents a powerful and versatile technique to monitor the dynamics of ternary interactions within multimeric complexes in live cells.

  2. An intramolecular charge transfer process based fluorescent probe for monitoring subtle pH fluctuation in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Mingtai; Du, Libo; Yu, Huan; Zhang, Kui; Liu, Yang; Wang, Suhua

    2017-01-01

    It is crucial to monitor intracellular pH values and their fluctuation since the organelles of cells have different pH distribution. Herein we construct a new small molecule fluorescent probe HBT-O for monitoring the subtle pH values within the scope of neutral to acid in living cells. The probe exhibited good water solubility, a marked turquoise to olivine emission color change in response to pH, and tremendous fluorescence hypochromatic shift of ∼50nm (1718cm -1 ) as well as the increased fluorescence intensity when the pH value changed from neutral to acid. Thus, the probe HBT-O can distinguish the subtle changes in the range of normal pH values from neutral to acid with significant fluorescence changes. These properties can be attributed to the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) process of the probe upon protonation in buffer solutions at varied pH values. Moreover, the probe was reversible and nearly non-toxic for living cells. Then the probe was successfully used to detect pH fluctuation in living cells by exhibiting different fluorescence colors and intensity. These findings demonstrate that the probe will find useful applications in biology and biomedical research. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Localized Chemical Remodeling for Live Cell Imaging of Protein-Specific Glycoform.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hui, Jingjing; Bao, Lei; Li, Siqiao; Zhang, Yi; Feng, Yimei; Ding, Lin; Ju, Huangxian

    2017-07-03

    Live cell imaging of protein-specific glycoforms is important for the elucidation of glycosylation mechanisms and identification of disease states. The currently used metabolic oligosaccharide engineering (MOE) technology permits routinely global chemical remodeling (GCM) for carbohydrate site of interest, but can exert unnecessary whole-cell scale perturbation and generate unpredictable metabolic efficiency issue. A localized chemical remodeling (LCM) strategy for efficient and reliable access to protein-specific glycoform information is reported. The proof-of-concept protocol developed for MUC1-specific terminal galactose/N-acetylgalactosamine (Gal/GalNAc) combines affinity binding, off-on switchable catalytic activity, and proximity catalysis to create a reactive handle for bioorthogonal labeling and imaging. Noteworthy assay features associated with LCM as compared with MOE include minimum target cell perturbation, short reaction timeframe, effectiveness as a molecular ruler, and quantitative analysis capability. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  4. Antibody-directed lentiviral gene transduction for live-cell monitoring and selection of human iPS and hES cells.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dai-tze Wu

    Full Text Available The identification of stem cells within a mixed population of cells is a major hurdle for stem cell biology--in particular, in the identification of induced pluripotent stem (iPS cells during the reprogramming process. Based on the selective expression of stem cell surface markers, a method to specifically infect stem cells through antibody-conjugated lentiviral particles has been developed that can deliver both visual markers for live-cell imaging as well as selectable markers to enrich for iPS cells. Antibodies recognizing SSEA4 and CD24 mediated the selective infection of the iPS cells over the parental human fibroblasts, allowing for rapid expansion of these cells by puromycin selection. Adaptation of the vector allows for the selective marking of human embryonic stem (hES cells for their removal from a population of differentiated cells. This method has the benefit that it not only identifies stem cells, but that specific genes, including positive and negative selection markers, regulatory genes or miRNA can be delivered to the targeted stem cells. The ability to specifically target gene delivery to human pluripotent stem cells has broad applications in tissue engineering and stem cell therapies.

  5. Opto-injection into single living cells by femtosecond near-infrared laser

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Cheng

    This dissertation presents a novel technique to deliver membrane impermeable molecules into single living cells with the assistance of femtosecond (fs) near-infrared (NIR) laser pulses. This approach merges ultrafast laser technology with key biological, biomedical, and medical applications, such as gene transfection, gene therapy and drug delivery. This technique promises several major advantages, namely, very high transfection efficiency, high cell survival rate (≈100%) and fully preserved cell viabilities. It is also a promising method to deliver molecules into cells that are difficult or even completely resistant to established physical methods, such as microinjection by glass pipettes, electroporation, and biolistics. In this work, the system for fs NIR opto-injection was designed and built. Successful fs NIR opto-injection has been performed on several cell systems including single mammalian cells (bovine aortic endothelial cells), marine animal eggs (Spisula solidissima oocytes), and human cancer cells (fibrosarcoma HT1080) cultured in a tissue-like environment. The connections between laser parameters and cell responses were explored through further experiments and in-depth analyses, especially the relationship between dye uptake rate and incident laser intensity, and the relationship between pore size created on cell membranes and incident laser intensity. Dye uptake rate of the target cells was observed to depend on incident laser intensity. Pore size was found dependent on incident laser intensity. The conclusion was made that laser-induced breakdown and plasma-induced ablation in cell membrane are the physical principles that govern the process of fs NIR opto-injection.

  6. The effects of UV irradiation and gas plasma treatment on living mammalian cells and bacteria: a comparative approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sosnin, E.A.; Stoffels - Adamowicz, E.; Erofeev, M.V.; Kieft, I.E.; Kunts, S.E.

    2004-01-01

    Living mammalian cells and bacteria were exposed to irradiation from narrow-band UV lamps and treated with a nonthermal gas plasma (plasma needle). The model systems were: Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO-K1) cells (fibroblasts) and Escherichia Coli bacteria. UV irradiation can lead to cell death

  7. Comparison of egg and high yielding MDCK cell-derived live attenuated influenza virus for commercial production of trivalent influenza vaccine: in vitro cell susceptibility and influenza virus replication kinetics in permissive and semi-permissive cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hussain, Althaf I; Cordeiro, Melissa; Sevilla, Elizabeth; Liu, Jonathan

    2010-05-14

    Currently MedImmune manufactures cold-adapted (ca) live, attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) from specific-pathogen free (SPF) chicken eggs. Difficulties in production scale-up and potential exposure of chicken flocks to avian influenza viruses especially in the event of a pandemic influenza outbreak have prompted evaluation and development of alternative non-egg based influenza vaccine manufacturing technologies. As part of MedImmune's effort to develop the live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) using cell culture production technologies we have investigated the use of high yielding, cloned MDCK cells as a substrate for vaccine production by assessing host range and virus replication of influenza virus produced from both SPF egg and MDCK cell production technologies. In addition to cloned MDCK cells the indicator cell lines used to evaluate the impact of producing LAIV in cells on host range and replication included two human cell lines: human lung carcinoma (A549) cells and human muco-epidermoid bronchiolar carcinoma (NCI H292) cells. The influenza viruses used to infect the indicators cell lines represented both the egg and cell culture manufacturing processes and included virus strains that composed the 2006-2007 influenza seasonal trivalent vaccine (A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1), A/Wisconsin/67/05 (H3N2) and B/Malaysia/2506/04). Results from this study demonstrate remarkable similarity between influenza viruses representing the current commercial egg produced and developmental MDCK cell produced vaccine production platforms. MedImmune's high yielding cloned MDCK cells used for the cell culture based vaccine production were highly permissive to both egg and cell produced ca attenuated influenza viruses. Both the A549 and NCI H292 cells regardless of production system were less permissive to influenza A and B viruses than the MDCK cells. Irrespective of the indicator cell line used the replication properties were similar between egg and the cell produced

  8. Mechanics of Cellulose Synthase Complexes in Living Plant Cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zehfroosh, Nina; Liu, Derui; Ramos, Kieran P.; Yang, Xiaoli; Goldner, Lori S.; Baskin, Tobias I.

    The polymer cellulose is one of the major components of the world's biomass with unique and fascinating characteristics such as its high tensile strength, renewability, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. Because of these distinctive aspects, cellulose has been the subject of enormous scientific and industrial interest, yet there are still fundamental open questions about cellulose biosynthesis. Cellulose is synthesized by a complex of transmembrane proteins called ``Cellulose Synthase A'' (CESA) in the plasma membrane. Studying the dynamics and kinematics of the CESA complex will help reveal the mechanism of cellulose synthesis and permit the development and validation of models of CESA motility. To understand what drives these complexes through the cell membrane, we used total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) and variable angle epi-fluorescence microscopy to track individual, fluorescently-labeled CESA complexes as they move in the hypocotyl and root of living plants. A mean square displacement analysis will be applied to distinguish ballistic, diffusional, and other forms of motion. We report on the results of these tracking experiments. This work was funded by NSF/PHY-1205989.

  9. A near-infrared fluorescent sensor for H+ in aqueous solution and living cells

    OpenAIRE

    WU, Aibin; DUAN, Liping

    2014-01-01

    A heptamethine cyanine-based sensor (1) was designed and synthesized by incorporating heptamethine cyanine fluorophore and methylpiperazine. Sensor 1 exhibited good response to the change of pH levels, and a large Stokes shift (>100 nm) was obtained. Fluorescent image experiments in living cells further demonstrated its potential applications in biological systems.

  10. Live microbial cells adsorb Mg2+ more effectively than lifeless organic matter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiu, Xuan; Yao, Yanchen; Wang, Hongmei; Duan, Yong

    2018-03-01

    The Mg2+ content is essential in determining different Mg-CaCO3 minerals. It has been demonstrated that both microbes and the organic matter secreted by microbes are capable of allocating Mg2+ and Ca2+ during the formation of Mg-CaCO3, yet detailed scenarios remain unclear. To investigate the mechanism that microbes and microbial organic matter potentially use to mediate the allocation of Mg2+ and Ca2+ in inoculating systems, microbial mats and four marine bacterial strains ( Synechococcus elongatus, Staphylococcus sp., Bacillus sp., and Desulfovibrio vulgaris) were incubated in artificial seawater media with Mg/Ca ratios ranging from 0.5 to 10.0. At the end of the incubation, the morphology of the microbial mats and the elements adsorbed on them were analyzed using scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and energy diffraction spectra (EDS), respectively. The content of Mg2+ and Ca2+ adsorbed by the extracellular polysaccharide substances (EPS) and cells of the bacterial strains were analyzed with atomic adsorption spectroscopy (AAS). The functional groups on the surface of the cells and EPS of S. elongatus were estimated using automatic potentiometric titration combined with a chemical equilibrium model. The results show that live microbial mats generally adsorb larger amounts of Mg2+ than Ca2+, while this rarely is the case for autoclaved microbial mats. A similar phenomenon was also observed for the bacterial strains. The living cells adsorb more Mg2+ than Ca2+, yet a reversed trend was observed for EPS. The functional group analysis indicates that the cell surface of S. elongatus contains more basic functional groups (87.24%), while the EPS has more acidic and neutral functional groups (83.08%). These features may be responsible for the different adsorption behavior of Mg2+ and Ca2+ by microbial cells and EPS. Our work confirms the differential Mg2+ and Ca2+ mediation by microbial cells and EPS, which may provide insight into the processes that microbes use to

  11. Conjugated Polymer with Intrinsic Alkyne Units for Synergistically Enhanced Raman Imaging in Living Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Shengliang; Chen, Tao; Wang, Yunxia; Liu, Libing; Lv, Fengting; Li, Zhiliang; Huang, Yanyi; Schanze, Kirk S; Wang, Shu

    2017-10-16

    Development of Raman-active materials with enhanced and distinctive Raman vibrations in the Raman-silent region (1800-2800 cm -1 ) is highly required for specific molecular imaging of living cells with high spatial resolution. Herein, water-soluble cationic conjugated polymers (CCPs), poly(phenylene ethynylene) (PPE) derivatives, are explored for use as alkyne-state-dependent Raman probes for living cell imaging due to synergetic enhancement effect of alkyne vibrations in Raman-silent region compared to alkyne-containing small molecules. The enhanced alkyne signals result from the integration of alkyne groups into the rigid backbone and the delocalized π-conjugated structure. PPE-based conjugated polymer nanoparticles (CPNs) were also prepared as Raman-responsive nanomaterials for distinct imaging application. This work opens a new way into the development of conjugated polymer materials for enhanced Raman imaging. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  12. What befalls the proteins and water in a living cell when the cell dies?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ling, Gilbert N; Fu, Ya-zhen

    2005-01-01

    The solvency of solutes of varying molecular size in the intracellular water of freshly-killed Ehrlich carcinoma cells fits the same theoretical curve that describes the solvency of similar solutes in a 36% solution of native bovine hemoglobin--a protein found only in red blood cells and making up 97.3% of the red cell's total intracellular proteins. The merging of the two sets of data confirms the prediction of the AI Hypothesis that key intracellular protein(s) in dying cells undergo(es) a transition from: (1) one in which the polypeptide NHCO groups assume a fully-extended conformation with relatively strong power of polarizing and orienting the bulk-phase water in multilayers; to (2) one in which most of the polypeptide NHCO groups are engaged in alpha-helical and other "introvert" conformations (see below for definition) with much weaker power in polarizing-orienting multilayers of bulk-phase water. This concordance of the two sets of data also shows that what we now call native hemoglobin--supposedly denoting hemoglobin found in its natural state in living red blood cells--, in fact, more closely resembles the water-polarizing, and -orienting intracellular proteins in dead cells. Although in the dead Ehrlich carcinoma cells as well as in the 36% solution of native hemoglobin, much of the protein's polypeptide NHCO groups are engaged in alpha-helical and other "introvert" conformation (Perutz 1969; Weissbluth 1974), both systems produce a weak but nonetheless pervasive and "long-range" water polarization and orientation. It is suggested that in both the dead Ehrlich carcinoma ascites cells and in the 36% native bovine hemoglobin solution, enough polypeptide NHCO groups assume the fully-extended conformation to produce the weak but far-reaching multilayer water polarization and orientation observed.

  13. Memory T-cell immune response in healthy young adults vaccinated with live attenuated influenza A (H5N2) vaccine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chirkova, T V; Naykhin, A N; Petukhova, G D; Korenkov, D A; Donina, S A; Mironov, A N; Rudenko, L G

    2011-10-01

    Cellular immune responses of both CD4 and CD8 memory/effector T cells were evaluated in healthy young adults who received two doses of live attenuated influenza A (H5N2) vaccine. The vaccine was developed by reassortment of nonpathogenic avian A/Duck/Potsdam/1402-6/68 (H5N2) and cold-adapted A/Leningrad/134/17/57 (H2N2) viruses. T-cell responses were measured by standard methods of intracellular cytokine staining of gamma interferon (IFN-γ)-producing cells and a novel T-cell recognition of antigen-presenting cells by protein capture (TRAP) assay based on the trogocytosis phenomenon, namely, plasma membrane exchange between interacting immune cells. TRAP enables the detection of activated trogocytosis-positive T cells after virus stimulation. We showed that two doses of live attenuated influenza A (H5N2) vaccine promoted both CD4 and CD8 T-memory-cell responses in peripheral blood of healthy young subjects in the clinical study. Significant differences in geometric mean titers (GMTs) of influenza A (H5N2)-specific IFN-γ(+) cells were observed at day 42 following the second vaccination, while peak levels of trogocytosis(+) T cells were detected earlier, on the 21st day after the second vaccination. The inverse correlation of baseline levels compared to postvaccine fold changes in GMTs of influenza-specific CD4 and CD8 T cells demonstrated that baseline levels of these specific cells could be considered a predictive factor of vaccine immunogenicity.

  14. Selective turn-on fluorescent probes for imaging hydrogen sulfide in living cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Montoya, Leticia A; Pluth, Michael D

    2012-05-16

    Hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S) is an important biological messenger but few biologically-compatible methods are available for its detection. Here we report two bright fluorescent probes that are selective for H(2)S over cysteine, glutathione and other reactive sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen species. Both probes are demonstrated to detect H(2)S in live cells. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012

  15. A magnetic trap for living cells suspended in a paramagnetic buffer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winkleman, Adam; Gudiksen, Katherine L.; Ryan, Declan; Whitesides, George M.; Greenfield, Derek; Prentiss, Mara

    2004-09-01

    This manuscript describes the fabrication and use of a three-dimensional magnetic trap for diamagnetic objects in an aqueous solution of paramagnetic ions; this trap uses permanent magnets. It demonstrates trapping of polystyrene spheres, and of various types of living cells: mouse fibroblast (NIH-3T3), yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), and algae (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii). For a 40mM solution of gadolinium (III) diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (Gd .DTPA) in aqueous buffer, the smallest cell (particle) that could be trapped had a radius of ˜2.5μm. The trapped particle and location of the magnetic trap can be translated in three dimensions by independent manipulation of the permanent magnets. This letter a1so characterizes the biocompatibility of the trapping solution.

  16. Sulfur X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy of Living Mammalian Cells: An Enabling Tool for Sulfur Metabolomics. in Situ Observation of Uptake of Taurine Into MDCK Cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gnida, M.; Sneeden, E.Yu; Whitin, J.C.; Prince, R.C.; Pickering, I.J.; Korbas, M.; George, G.N.

    2009-06-01

    Sulfur is essential for life, with important roles in biological structure and function. However, because of a lack of suitable biophysical techniques, in situ information about sulfur biochemistry is generally difficult to obtain. Here, we present an in situ sulfur X-ray absorption spectroscopy (S-XAS) study of living cell cultures of the mammalian renal epithelial MDCK cell line. A great deal of information is retrieved from a characteristic sulfonate feature in the X-ray absorption spectrum of the cell cultures, which can be related to the amino acid taurine. We followed the time and dose dependence of uptake of taurine into MDCK cell monolayers. The corresponding uptake curves showed a typical saturation behavior with considerable levels of taurine accumulation inside the cells (as much as 40% of total cellular sulfur). We also investigated the polarity of uptake of taurine into MDCK cells, and our results confirmed that uptake in situ is predominantly a function of the basolateral cell surface.

  17. A Novel Method of Imaging Lysosomes in Living Human Mammary Epithelial Cells

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kristine Glunde

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available Cancer cells invade by secreting degradative enzymes which, under normal conditions, are sequestered in lysosomal vesicles. The ability to noninvasively label lysosomes and track lysosomal trafficking would be extremely useful to understand the mechanisms by which degradative enzymes are secreted in the presence of pathophysiological environments, such as hypoxia and acidic extracellular pH, which are frequently encountered in solid tumors. In this study, a novel method of introducing a fluorescent label into lysosomes of human mammary epithelial cells (HMECs was evaluated. Highly glycosylated lysosomal membrane proteins were labeled with a newly synthesized compound, 5-dimethylamino-naphthalene-1-sulfonic acid 5-amino-3,4,6-trihydroxy-tetrahydro-pyran-2-ylmethyl ester (6-O-dansyl-GlcNH2. The ability to optically image lysosomes using this new probe was validated by determining the colocalization of the fluorescence from the dansyl group with immunofluorescent staining of two well-established lysosomal marker proteins, LAMP-1 and LAMP-2. The location of the dansyl group in lysosomes was also verified by using an anti-dansyl antibody in Western blots of lysosomes isolated using isopycnic density gradient centrifugation. This novel method of labeling lysosomes biosynthetically was used to image lysosomes in living HMECs perfused in a microscopy-compatible cell perfusion system.

  18. Enlightening intracellular complexity of living cells with quantitative phase microscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinez Torres, C.; Laperrousaz, B.; Berguiga, L.; Boyer Provera, E.; Elezgaray, J.; Nicolini, F. E.; Maguer-Satta, V.; Arneodo, A.; Argoul, F.

    2016-03-01

    The internal distribution of refractive indices (RIs) of a living cell is much more complex than usually admitted in multi-shell models. The reconstruction of RI maps from single phase images has rarely been achieved for several reasons: (i) we still have very little knowledge of the impact of internal macromolecular complexes on the local RI and (ii) phase changes produced by light propagation through the sample are mixed with diffraction effects by internal cell bodies. We propose the implementation a 2D wavelet-based contour chain detection method to distinguish internal boundaries thanks to their greatest optical path difference gradients. These contour chains correspond to the highest image phase contrast and follow the local RI inhomogeneities linked to the intracellular structural intricacy. Their statistics and spatial distribution are morphological indicators for distinguishing cells of different origins and to follow their transformation in pathologic situations. We use this method to compare non adherent blood cells from primary and laboratory culture origins, in healthy and pathological situations (chronic myelogenous leukaemia). In a second part of this presentation, we concentrate on the temporal dynamics of the phase contour chains and we discuss the spectral decomposition of their dynamics in both health and disease.

  19. An improved model for nucleation-limited ice formation in living cells during freezing.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jingru Yi

    Full Text Available Ice formation in living cells is a lethal event during freezing and its characterization is important to the development of optimal protocols for not only cryopreservation but also cryotherapy applications. Although the model for probability of ice formation (PIF in cells developed by Toner et al. has been widely used to predict nucleation-limited intracellular ice formation (IIF, our data of freezing Hela cells suggest that this model could give misleading prediction of PIF when the maximum PIF in cells during freezing is less than 1 (PIF ranges from 0 to 1. We introduce a new model to overcome this problem by incorporating a critical cell volume to modify the Toner's original model. We further reveal that this critical cell volume is dependent on the mechanisms of ice nucleation in cells during freezing, i.e., surface-catalyzed nucleation (SCN and volume-catalyzed nucleation (VCN. Taken together, the improved PIF model may be valuable for better understanding of the mechanisms of ice nucleation in cells during freezing and more accurate prediction of PIF for cryopreservation and cryotherapy applications.

  20. Near-Infrared Light Activation of Proteins Inside Living Cells Enabled by Carbon Nanotube-Mediated Intracellular Delivery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, He; Fan, Xinqi; Chen, Xing

    2016-02-01

    Light-responsive proteins have been delivered into the cells for controlling intracellular events with high spatial and temporal resolution. However, the choice of wavelength is limited to the UV and visible range; activation of proteins inside the cells using near-infrared (NIR) light, which has better tissue penetration and biocompatibility, remains elusive. Here, we report the development of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)-based bifunctional system that enables protein intracellular delivery, followed by NIR activation of the delivered proteins inside the cells. Proteins of interest are conjugated onto SWCNTs via a streptavidin-desthiobiotin (SA-DTB) linkage, where the protein activity is blocked. SWCNTs serve as both a nanocarrier for carrying proteins into the cells and subsequently a NIR sensitizer to photothermally cleave the linkage and release the proteins. The released proteins become active and exert their functions inside the cells. We demonstrated this strategy by intracellular delivery and NIR-triggered nuclear translocation of enhanced green fluorescent protein, and by intracellular delivery and NIR-activation of a therapeutic protein, saporin, in living cells. Furthermore, we showed that proteins conjugated onto SWCNTs via the SA-DTB linkage could be delivered to the tumors, and optically released and activated by using NIR light in living mice.

  1. Adaptation in Living Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tu, Yuhai; Rappel, Wouter-Jan

    2018-03-01

    Adaptation refers to the biological phenomenon where living systems change their internal states in response to changes in their environments in order to maintain certain key functions critical for their survival and fitness. Adaptation is one of the most ubiquitous and arguably one of the most fundamental properties of living systems. It occurs throughout all biological scales, from adaptation of populations of species over evolutionary time to adaptation of a single cell to different environmental stresses during its life span. In this article, we review some of the recent progress made in understanding molecular mechanisms of cellular-level adaptation. We take the minimalist (or the physicist) approach and study the simplest systems that exhibit generic adaptive behaviors, namely chemotaxis in bacterium cells (Escherichia coli) and eukaryotic cells (Dictyostelium). We focus on understanding the basic biochemical interaction networks that are responsible for adaptation dynamics. By combining theoretical modeling with quantitative experimentation, we demonstrate universal features in adaptation as well as important differences in different cellular systems. Future work in extending the modeling framework to study adaptation in more complex systems such as sensory neurons is also discussed.

  2. Reaction of long-lived radicals and vitamin C in γ-irradiated mammalian cells and their model system at 295 K. Tunneling reaction in biological system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Matsumoto, Takuro; Kumada, Takayuki; Kodama, Seiji; Watanabe, Masami

    1997-01-01

    When golden hamster embryo (GHE) cells or concentrated albumin solution (0.1 kg dm -3 ), that is a model system of cells, is irradiated with γ-rays at 295 K, organic radicals produced can be observed by ESR. The organic radicals survive at both 295 and 310 K for as long as 20 h. The long-lived radicals in GHE cells and the albumin solution react with vitamin C by the rate constants of 0.007 dm 3 mol -1 s -1 and 0.014 dm 3 mol -1 s -1 , respectively. The long-lived radicals in human cells cause gene mutation, which is suppressed by the addition of vitamin C. The isotope effect on the rate constant (κ) for the reaction of the long-lived radicals and vitamin C has been studied in the albumin solution by use of protonated vitamin C and deuterated vitamin C. The isotope effect (κ H /κ D ) was more than 20 ∼ 50 and was interpreted in terms of tunnelling reaction. (author)

  3. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering reveals adsorption of mitoxantrone on plasma membrane of living cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Breuzard, G.; Angiboust, J.-F.; Jeannesson, P.; Manfait, M.; Millot, J.-M.

    2004-01-01

    Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy was applied to analyze mitoxantrone (MTX) adsorption on the plasma membrane microenvironment of sensitive (HCT-116 S) or BCRP/MXR-type resistant (HCT-116 R) cells. The addition of silver colloid to MTX-treated cells revealed an enhanced Raman scattering of MTX. Addition of extracellular DNA induced a total extinction of MTX Raman intensity for both cell lines, which revealed an adsorption of MTX on plasma membrane. A threefold higher MTX Raman intensity was observed for HCT-116 R, suggesting a tight MTX adsorption in the plasma membrane microenvironment. Fluorescence confocal microscopy confirmed a relative MTX emission around plasma membrane for HCT-116 R. After 30 min at 4 deg. C, a threefold decrease of the MTX Raman scattering was observed for HCT-116 R, contrary to HCT-116 S. Permeation with benzyl alcohol revealed a threefold decrease of membrane MTX adsorption on HCT-116 R, exclusively. This additional MTX adsorption should correspond to the drug bound to an unstable site on the HCT-116 R membrane. This study showed that SERS spectroscopy could be a direct method to reveal drug adsorption to the membrane environment of living cells

  4. Time-lapse cinematography in living Drosophila tissues: preparation of material.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davis, Ilan; Parton, Richard M

    2006-11-01

    The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has been an extraordinarily successful model organism for studying the genetic basis of development and evolution. It is arguably the best-understood complex multicellular model system, owing its success to many factors. Recent developments in imaging techniques, in particular sophisticated fluorescence microscopy methods and equipment, now allow cellular events to be studied at high resolution in living material. This ability has enabled the study of features that tend to be lost or damaged by fixation, such as transient or dynamic events. Although many of the techniques of live cell imaging in Drosophila are shared with the greater community of cell biologists working on other model systems, studying living fly tissues presents unique difficulties in keeping the cells alive, introducing fluorescent probes, and imaging through thick hazy cytoplasm. This protocol outlines the preparation of major tissue types amenable to study by time-lapse cinematography and different methods for keeping them alive.

  5. Single ovalbumin molecules exploring nucleoplasm and nucleoli of living cell nuclei.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Speil, Jasmin; Kubitscheck, Ulrich

    2010-03-01

    The nucleus is the center of direction and coordination of the cell's metabolic and reproductive activities and contains numerous functionally specialized domains. These subnuclear structures are not delimited by membranes like cytoplasmic organelles and their function is only poorly understood. Here, we studied the most prominent nuclear domains, nucleoli and the remaining nucleoplasm. We used fluorescently labeled ovalbumin-ATTO647N, an inert protein, to examine their physical properties. This inert tracer was microinjected into the cytoplasm of HeLa cells, and after diffusion into the nucleus the tracer distribution and mobility in the two nuclear compartments was examined. Like many macromolecular probes ovalbumin was significantly less abundant in nucleoli compared to the nucleoplasm. High-speed fluorescence microscopy allowed visualizing and analyzing single tracer molecule trajectories within nucleoli and nucleoplasm. In accordance with previous studies we found that the viscosity of the nucleus is sevenfold higher than that of aqueous buffer. Notably, nucleoplasm and nucleoli did not significantly differ in viscosity, however, the fraction of slow or trapped molecules was higher in the nucleoplasm than in nucleoli (6% versus 0.2%). Surprisingly, even a completely inert molecule like ovalbumin showed at times short-lived binding events with a decay time of 8 ms in the nucleoplasm and even shorter-6.3 ms-within the nucleoli. Copyright 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  6. WE-FG-BRA-04: A Portable Confocal Microscope to Image Live Cell Damage Response Induced by Therapeutic Radiation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    McFadden, C; Flint, D; Grosshans, D; Sawakuchi, G [The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (United States); Sadetaporn, D [The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (United States); Rice University, Houston, TX (United States); Asaithamby, A [UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX (United States)

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: To construct a custom and portable fluorescence confocal laser-scanning microscope (FCLSM) that can be placed in the path of therapeutic radiation beams to study real-time radiation-induced damage response in live cells. Methods: We designed and constructed a portable FCLSM with three laser diodes for excitation (405, 488, and 635 nm). An objective lens focuses the excitation light and collects fluorescence from the sample. A pair of galvanometer mirrors scans/collects the laser beam/fluorescence along the focal plane (x/y-directions). A stepper motor stage scans in the axial direction and positions the x/y of the image field. Barrier filters and dichroic mirrors are used to route the spectral emission bands to the appropriate photodetector. An avalanche photodiode collects near-infrared fluorescence; a photodiode collects back-reflected 635 nm light; and a photomultiplier tube collects green fluorescence in the range of eGFP/eYFP. A 200-µm diameter pinhole was used to implement the confocal geometry for near-infrared and red channels and a 150-µm diameter pinhole for the green channel. Data acquisition and system control were achieved using a high-throughput data acquisition card. In-house software developed in LabVIEW was used to control the hardware, collect data from the photodetectors and reconstruct the confocal images. Results: 6 frames/s can be acquired for a 25 µm{sup 2} (128×128 pixels) field of view, visualizing the entire volume of the cell nucleus (∼10 µm depth) in <10 s. To demonstrate the usefulness of our FCLSM, we imaged gold nanoshells in live cells, radiation-induced damage in fibrosarcoma cells expressing eGFP tagged to a DNA repair protein, and neurons expressing eGFP. The system can also image particle tracks in fluorescent nuclear track detectors. Conclusion: We developed a versatile and portable FCLSM that allows radiobiology studies in live cells exposed to therapeutic radiation. The FCLSM can be placed in any vertical beam

  7. WE-FG-BRA-04: A Portable Confocal Microscope to Image Live Cell Damage Response Induced by Therapeutic Radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McFadden, C; Flint, D; Grosshans, D; Sawakuchi, G; Sadetaporn, D; Asaithamby, A

    2016-01-01

    Purpose: To construct a custom and portable fluorescence confocal laser-scanning microscope (FCLSM) that can be placed in the path of therapeutic radiation beams to study real-time radiation-induced damage response in live cells. Methods: We designed and constructed a portable FCLSM with three laser diodes for excitation (405, 488, and 635 nm). An objective lens focuses the excitation light and collects fluorescence from the sample. A pair of galvanometer mirrors scans/collects the laser beam/fluorescence along the focal plane (x/y-directions). A stepper motor stage scans in the axial direction and positions the x/y of the image field. Barrier filters and dichroic mirrors are used to route the spectral emission bands to the appropriate photodetector. An avalanche photodiode collects near-infrared fluorescence; a photodiode collects back-reflected 635 nm light; and a photomultiplier tube collects green fluorescence in the range of eGFP/eYFP. A 200-µm diameter pinhole was used to implement the confocal geometry for near-infrared and red channels and a 150-µm diameter pinhole for the green channel. Data acquisition and system control were achieved using a high-throughput data acquisition card. In-house software developed in LabVIEW was used to control the hardware, collect data from the photodetectors and reconstruct the confocal images. Results: 6 frames/s can be acquired for a 25 µm 2 (128×128 pixels) field of view, visualizing the entire volume of the cell nucleus (∼10 µm depth) in <10 s. To demonstrate the usefulness of our FCLSM, we imaged gold nanoshells in live cells, radiation-induced damage in fibrosarcoma cells expressing eGFP tagged to a DNA repair protein, and neurons expressing eGFP. The system can also image particle tracks in fluorescent nuclear track detectors. Conclusion: We developed a versatile and portable FCLSM that allows radiobiology studies in live cells exposed to therapeutic radiation. The FCLSM can be placed in any vertical beam line

  8. Live Imaging of Influenza Infection of the Trachea Reveals Dynamic Regulation of CD8+ T Cell Motility by Antigen.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lambert Emo, Kris; Hyun, Young-Min; Reilly, Emma; Barilla, Christopher; Gerber, Scott; Fowell, Deborah; Kim, Minsoo; Topham, David J

    2016-09-01

    During a primary influenza infection, cytotoxic CD8+ T cells need to infiltrate the infected airways and engage virus-infected epithelial cells. The factors that regulate T cell motility in the infected airway tissue are not well known. To more precisely study T cell infiltration of the airways, we developed an experimental model system using the trachea as a site where live imaging can be performed. CD8+ T cell motility was dynamic with marked changes in motility on different days of the infection. In particular, significant changes in average cell velocity and confinement were evident on days 8-10 during which the T cells abruptly but transiently increase velocity on day 9. Experiments to distinguish whether infection itself or antigen affect motility revealed that it is antigen, not active infection per se that likely affects these changes as blockade of peptide/MHC resulted in increased velocity. These observations demonstrate that influenza tracheitis provides a robust experimental foundation to study molecular regulation of T cell motility during acute virus infection.

  9. Live Imaging of Influenza Infection of the Trachea Reveals Dynamic Regulation of CD8+ T Cell Motility by Antigen.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kris Lambert Emo

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available During a primary influenza infection, cytotoxic CD8+ T cells need to infiltrate the infected airways and engage virus-infected epithelial cells. The factors that regulate T cell motility in the infected airway tissue are not well known. To more precisely study T cell infiltration of the airways, we developed an experimental model system using the trachea as a site where live imaging can be performed. CD8+ T cell motility was dynamic with marked changes in motility on different days of the infection. In particular, significant changes in average cell velocity and confinement were evident on days 8-10 during which the T cells abruptly but transiently increase velocity on day 9. Experiments to distinguish whether infection itself or antigen affect motility revealed that it is antigen, not active infection per se that likely affects these changes as blockade of peptide/MHC resulted in increased velocity. These observations demonstrate that influenza tracheitis provides a robust experimental foundation to study molecular regulation of T cell motility during acute virus infection.

  10. Evaluation of chemical fluorescent dyes as a protein conjugation partner for live cell imaging.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yoko Hayashi-Takanaka

    Full Text Available To optimize live cell fluorescence imaging, the choice of fluorescent substrate is a critical factor. Although genetically encoded fluorescent proteins have been used widely, chemical fluorescent dyes are still useful when conjugated to proteins or ligands. However, little information is available for the suitability of different fluorescent dyes for live imaging. We here systematically analyzed the property of a number of commercial fluorescent dyes when conjugated with antigen-binding (Fab fragments directed against specific histone modifications, in particular, phosphorylated H3S28 (H3S28ph and acetylated H3K9 (H3K9ac. These Fab fragments were conjugated with a fluorescent dye and loaded into living HeLa cells. H3S28ph-specific Fab fragments were expected to be enriched in condensed chromosomes, as H3S28 is phosphorylated during mitosis. However, the degree of Fab fragment enrichment on mitotic chromosomes varied depending on the conjugated dye. In general, green fluorescent dyes showed higher enrichment, compared to red and far-red fluorescent dyes, even when dye:protein conjugation ratios were similar. These differences are partly explained by an altered affinity of Fab fragment after dye-conjugation; some dyes have less effect on the affinity, while others can affect it more. Moreover, red and far-red fluorescent dyes tended to form aggregates in the cytoplasm. Similar results were observed when H3K9ac-specific Fab fragments were used, suggesting that the properties of each dye affect different Fab fragments similarly. According to our analysis, conjugation with green fluorescent dyes, like Alexa Fluor 488 and Dylight 488, has the least effect on Fab affinity and is the best for live cell imaging, although these dyes are less photostable than red fluorescent dyes. When multicolor imaging is required, we recommend the following dye combinations for optimal results: Alexa Fluor 488 (green, Cy3 (red, and Cy5 or CF640 (far-red.

  11. Cell volume and geometric parameters determination in living cells using confocal microscopy and 3D reconstruction

    OpenAIRE

    sprotocols

    2015-01-01

    Authors: David Hevia, Aida Rodriguez-Garcia, Marta Alonso-Gervós, Isabel Quirós-González, Henar M Cimadevilla, Carmen Gómez-Cordovés, Rosa M Sainz & Juan C Mayo ### Abstract The protocol reported here describes a simple, easy, fast and reproducible method aimed to know the geometric parameters of living cells based on confocal laser scanning microscopy combined with 3D reconstruction software. Briefly, the method is based on intrinsic fluorescence properties of acridine orange (AO), a...

  12. Self-Assembled Fluorescent Bovine Serum Albumin Nanoprobes for Ratiometric pH Measurement inside Living Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Qiaoyu; Ye, Zhongju; Zhong, Meile; Chen, Bo; Chen, Jian; Zeng, Rongjin; Wei, Lin; Li, Hung-wing; Xiao, Lehui

    2016-04-20

    In this work, we demonstrated a new ratiometric method for the quantitative analysis of pH inside living cells. The structure of the nanosensor comprises a biofriendly fluorescent bovine serum albumin (BSA) matrix, acting as a pH probe, and pH-insensitive reference dye Alexa 594 enabling ratiometric quantitative pH measurement. The fluorescent BSA matrix was synthesized by cross-linking of the denatured BSA proteins in ethanol with glutaraldehyde. The size of the as-synthesized BSA nanoparticles can be readily manipulated from 30 to 90 nm, which exhibit decent fluorescence at the peak wavelength of 535 nm with a pH response range of 6-8. The potential of this pH sensor for intracellular pH monitoring was demonstrated inside living HeLa cells, whereby a significant change in fluorescence ratio was observed when the pH of the cell was switched from normal to acidic with anticancer drug treatment. The fast response of the nanosensor makes it a very powerful tool in monitoring the processes occurring within the cytosol.

  13. Living electrode as a long-lived photoconverter for biophotolysis of water

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ochiai, H.; Shibata, H.; Sawa, Y.; Katoh, T.

    1980-05-01

    Living blue-green algae (Mastigocladus laminosus), immobilized on an SnO/sub 2/ optically transparent electrode with calcium alginate, functioned as an anodic photo electrode on continuous illumination for periods of time adequate for use in a conventional electrochemical cell. This living electrode shows promise of use as a long-lived photoconverter of solar radiant energy to electric energy and as a suitable replacement for unstable chloroplast systems.

  14. Bayesian approach to MSD-based analysis of particle motion in live cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monnier, Nilah; Guo, Syuan-Ming; Mori, Masashi; He, Jun; Lénárt, Péter; Bathe, Mark

    2012-08-08

    Quantitative tracking of particle motion using live-cell imaging is a powerful approach to understanding the mechanism of transport of biological molecules, organelles, and cells. However, inferring complex stochastic motion models from single-particle trajectories in an objective manner is nontrivial due to noise from sampling limitations and biological heterogeneity. Here, we present a systematic Bayesian approach to multiple-hypothesis testing of a general set of competing motion models based on particle mean-square displacements that automatically classifies particle motion, properly accounting for sampling limitations and correlated noise while appropriately penalizing model complexity according to Occam's Razor to avoid over-fitting. We test the procedure rigorously using simulated trajectories for which the underlying physical process is known, demonstrating that it chooses the simplest physical model that explains the observed data. Further, we show that computed model probabilities provide a reliability test for the downstream biological interpretation of associated parameter values. We subsequently illustrate the broad utility of the approach by applying it to disparate biological systems including experimental particle trajectories from chromosomes, kinetochores, and membrane receptors undergoing a variety of complex motions. This automated and objective Bayesian framework easily scales to large numbers of particle trajectories, making it ideal for classifying the complex motion of large numbers of single molecules and cells from high-throughput screens, as well as single-cell-, tissue-, and organism-level studies. Copyright © 2012 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Intermittent Fluorescence Oscillations in Lipid Droplets in a Live Normal and Lung Cancer Cell: Time-Resolved Confocal Microscopy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chowdhury, Rajdeep; Amin, Md Asif; Bhattacharyya, Kankan

    2015-08-27

    Intermittent structural oscillation in the lipid droplets of live lung cells is monitored using time-resolved confocal microscopy. Significant differences are observed between the lung cancer cell (A549) and normal (nonmalignant) lung cell (WI38). For this study, the lipid droplets are covalently labeled with a fluorescent dye, coumarin maleimide (7-diethylamino-3-(4-maleimido-phenyl)-4-methylcoumarin, CPM). The number of lipid droplets in the cancer cell is found to be ∼20-fold higher than that in the normal (nonmalignant) cell. The fluctuation in the fluorescence intensity of the dye (CPM) is attributed to the red-ox processes and periodic formation/rupture of the S-CPM bond. The amount of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is much higher in a cancer cell. This is manifested in faster oscillations (0.9 ± 0.3 s) in cancer cells compared to that in the normal cells (2.8 ± 0.7 s). Solvation dynamics in the lipid droplets of cancer cells is slower compared to that in the normal cell.

  16. Extending roGFP Emission via Förster-Type Resonance Energy Transfer Relay Enables Simultaneous Dual Compartment Ratiometric Redox Imaging in Live Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Norcross, Stevie; Trull, Keelan J; Snaider, Jordan; Doan, Sara; Tat, Kiet; Huang, Libai; Tantama, Mathew

    2017-11-22

    Reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediate both intercellular and intraorganellar signaling, and ROS propagate oxidative stress between cellular compartments such as mitochondria and the cytosol. Each cellular compartment contains its own sources of ROS as well as antioxidant mechanisms, which contribute to dynamic fluctuations in ROS levels that occur during signaling, metabolism, and stress. However, the coupling of redox dynamics between cellular compartments has not been well studied because of the lack of available sensors to simultaneously measure more than one subcellular compartment in the same cell. Currently, the redox-sensitive green fluorescent protein, roGFP, has been used extensively to study compartment-specific redox dynamics because it provides a quantitative ratiometric readout and it is amenable to subcellular targeting as a genetically encoded sensor. Here, we report a new family of genetically encoded fluorescent protein sensors that extend the fluorescence emission of roGFP via Förster-type resonance energy transfer to an acceptor red fluorescent protein for dual-color live-cell microscopy. We characterize the redox and optical properties of the sensor proteins, and we demonstrate that they can be used to simultaneously measure cytosolic and mitochondrial ROS in living cells. Furthermore, we use these sensors to reveal cell-to-cell heterogeneity in redox coupling between the cytosol and mitochondria when neuroblastoma cells are exposed to reductive and metabolic stresses.

  17. Limits to anaerobic energy and cytosolic concentration in the living cell

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paglietti, A.

    2015-11-01

    For many physical systems at any given temperature, the set of all states where the system's free energy reaches its largest value can be determined from the system's constitutive equations of internal energy and entropy, once a state of that set is known. Such an approach is fraught with complications when applied to a living cell, because the cell's cytosol contains thousands of solutes, and thus thousands of state variables, which makes determination of its state impractical. We show here that, when looking for the maximum energy that the cytosol can store and release, detailed information on cytosol composition is redundant. Compatibility with cell's life requires that a single variable that represents the overall concentration of cytosol solutes must fall between defined limits, which can be determined by dehydrating and overhydrating the cell to its maximum capacity. The same limits are shown to determine, in particular, the maximum amount of free energy that a cell can supply in fast anaerobic processes, starting from any given initial state. For a typical skeletal muscle in normal physiological conditions this energy, i.e., the maximum anaerobic capacity to do work, is calculated to be about 960 J per kg of muscular mass. Such energy decreases as the overall concentration of solutes in the cytosol is increased. Similar results apply to any kind of cell. They provide an essential tool to understand and control the macroscopic response of single cells and multicellular cellular tissues alike. The applications include sport physiology, cell aging, disease produced cell damage, drug absorption capacity, to mention the most obvious ones.

  18. Rational design of reversible fluorescent probes for live-cell imaging and quantification of fast glutathione dynamics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Umezawa, Keitaro; Yoshida, Masafumi; Kamiya, Mako; Yamasoba, Tatsuya; Urano, Yasuteru

    2017-03-01

    Alterations in glutathione (GSH) homeostasis are associated with a variety of diseases and cellular functions, and therefore, real-time live-cell imaging and quantification of GSH dynamics are important for understanding pathophysiological processes. However, existing fluorescent probes are unsuitable for these purposes due to their irreversible fluorogenic mechanisms or slow reaction rates. In this work, we have successfully overcome these problems by establishing a design strategy inspired by Mayr's work on nucleophilic reaction kinetics. The synthesized probes exhibit concentration-dependent, reversible and rapid absorption/fluorescence changes (t1/2 = 620 ms at [GSH] = 1 mM), as well as appropriate Kd values (1-10 mM: within the range of intracellular GSH concentrations). We also developed FRET-based ratiometric probes, and demonstrated that they are useful for quantifying GSH concentration in various cell types and also for real-time live-cell imaging of GSH dynamics with temporal resolution of seconds.

  19. Nanometer scale thermometry in a living cell

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kucsko, G.; Maurer, P. C.; Yao, N. Y.; Kubo, M.; Noh, H. J.; Lo, P. K.; Park, H.; Lukin, M. D.

    2014-01-01

    Sensitive probing of temperature variations on nanometer scales represents an outstanding challenge in many areas of modern science and technology1. In particular, a thermometer capable of sub-degree temperature resolution over a large range of temperatures as well as integration within a living system could provide a powerful new tool for many areas of biological, physical and chemical research; possibilities range from the temperature-induced control of gene expression2–5 and tumor metabolism6 to the cell-selective treatment of disease7,8 and the study of heat dissipation in integrated circuits1. By combining local light-induced heat sources with sensitive nanoscale thermometry, it may also be possible to engineer biological processes at the sub-cellular level2–5. Here, we demonstrate a new approach to nanoscale thermometry that utilizes coherent manipulation of the electronic spin associated with nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers in diamond. We show the ability to detect temperature variations down to 1.8 mK (sensitivity of 9mK/Hz) in an ultra-pure bulk diamond sample. Using NV centers in diamond nanocrystals (nanodiamonds, NDs), we directly measure the local thermal environment at length scales down to 200 nm. Finally, by introducing both nanodiamonds and gold nanoparticles into a single human embryonic fibroblast, we demonstrate temperature-gradient control and mapping at the sub-cellular level, enabling unique potential applications in life sciences. PMID:23903748

  20. Low cost label-free live cell imaging for biological samples

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seniya, C.; Towers, C. E.; Towers, D. P.

    2017-02-01

    This paper reports the progress to develop a practical phase measuring microscope offering new capabilities in terms of phase measurement accuracy and quantification of cell:cell interactions over the longer term. A novel, low cost phase interference microscope for imaging live cells (label-free) is described. The method combines the Zernike phase contrast approach with a dual mirror design to enable phase modulation between the scattered and un-scattered optical fields. Two designs are proposed and demonstrated, one of which retains the common path nature of Zernike's original microscopy concept. In both setups the phase shift is simple to control via a piezoelectric driven mirror in the back focal plane of the imaging system. The approach is significantly cheaper to implement than those based on spatial light modulators (SLM) at approximately 20% of the cost. A quantitative assessment of the performance of a set of phase shifting algorithms is also presented, specifically with regard to broad bandwidth illumination in phase contrast microscopy. The simulation results show that the phase measurement accuracy is strongly dependent on the algorithm selected and the optical path difference in the sample.