实验仪器使用技术

The translocation of single mRNPs (mRNA–protein complexes) from the nucleus to the cytoplasm through the nuclear pore complex (NPC) is an important basic cellular process. Originally, in order to visualize this process, single mRNP export was examined using electron microscopy (EM) in f ...

Real-time observation of single molecules or biological nanoparticles with high spatial resolution in living cells provides detailed insights into the dynamics of cellular processes. The salivary gland cells of Chironomus tentans are a well-established model system to study the ...

The movement of polyadenylated RNA transcripts (poly(A) RNA) through speckles in the nucleus can be detected and studied using fluorescence correlation microscopy (FCM) and photoactivation RNA tracking techniques. Speckles, sometimes called interchromatin granule clust ...

Single-cell studies of gene regulation suggest that transcription dynamics play a fundamental role in determining expression heterogeneity within a population. In addition, the three-dimensional organization of the nucleus seems to both reflect and influence expression pa ...

Regulating gene expression is a major task for all cellular systems. RNA production and degradation plays a critical role in this process and accurately measuring cellular mRNA levels is essential to understanding gene expression regulation. Classical biochemical assays that stu ...

Differentiation of embryonic stem cells is accompanied by changes of gene expression and chromatin and chromosome dynamics. One of the most impressive examples for these changes is inactivation of one of the two X chromosomes occurring upon differentiation of mouse female embryonic s ...

The glucocorticoid receptor is an inducible transcription factor which plays important roles in many �physiological processes. Upon activation, GR interacts with regulatory elements and modulates the expression of genes. Although GR is widely expressed in multiple tissues, its ...

Optical microscopy is a simple yet robust strategy to study live cellular processes. By changing the wavelength of the illumination light, different non-fluorescent nanoparticle probes can be identified and tracked dynamically inside crowded living cells with either differen ...

Laser scanning cytometer (LSC) is the microscope-based cytofluorometer that offers a plethora of unique analytical capabilities, not provided by flow cytometry (FCM). This review describes attributes of LSC and covers its numerous applications derived from plentitude of the par ...

Laser capture microdissection (LCM) allows the precise procurement of enriched cell populations from a heterogeneous tissue, or live cell culture, under direct microscopic visualization. Histologically enriched cell populations can be procured by harvesting cells of inter ...

Surface preparation is a key step for reliable and reproducible imaging of DNA and protein-DNA complexes with atomic force microscopy (AFM). This article describes the approaches for chemical functionalization of the mica surface. One approach utilizes 3-aminopropyl-trietoxy s ...

The information covered in this chapter will present a model homogenous membrane preparation technique and dynamic imaging procedure that can be successfully applied to more than one type of lipid study and atomic force microscope (AFM) instrument setup. The basic procedural steps have ...

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful and versatile tool for probing the mechanical properties of biological samples. This chapter describes the procedures for using AFM indentation to measure the elastic moduli of living cells. We include step-by-step instructions for cantil ...

Cells synthesize and store within membranous sacs products such as hormones, growth factors, neurotransmitters, or digestive enzymes, for release on demand. As recently as just 15 years ago, it was believed that during cell secretion, membrane-bound secretory vesicles completely me ...

One of the challenging tasks in molecular cell biology is to identify and localize specific binding sites on biological samples with high spatial accuracy (in order of several nm). During the past 5 years, simultaneous topography and recognition imaging (TREC) has become a powerful AFM-bas ...

Nerve Morphometry is one tool employed in the clinical assessment of peripheral sural nerve pathological abnormalities. A new method is presented in this chapter incorporating an unbiased approach to quantitative sural nerve evaluation. Using conventional epoxy embedded nerv ...

This chapter deals with the stereological quantification of structural characteristics of the lung. The aim of design-based stereological methods is the unbiased and efficient estimation of structural features without making any assumptions on the underlying nature of the biol ...

The scientific community has become very concerned about inappropriate image manipulation. In journals that check figures after acceptance, 20–25% of the papers contained at least one figure that did not comply with the journal’s instructions to authors. The scientific press continu ...

Correlative light–electron microscopy (CLEM) is a very effective technique that combines live-cell imaging and immuno-electron microscopy for ultrastructural morphological characterization of dynamic intracellular organelles. The use of green fluorescent prote ...

Correlative microscopic approaches combine the advantages of both light and electron microscopy. Here we show a correlative approach that uses the photooxidation capacity of fluorescent dyes. Through illumination with high energetic light, the chromogen diaminobenzidine ...