Sunday, October 15, 2017

An Insight On Live Cell Microscopy

By Paul Cooper


The biological functions of the human body are complex and over the years, scientists and researchers have carried out research to discover the human anatomy. The major building block of the human body is the cell. They are the structural compositions of the body and are mostly referred to as the smallest basic units of life. In order to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the functioning of these units, live cell microscopy is applied.

This imaging method has been accessible for many years now and has been extended to many different fields. It involves viewing of these structural units under a time-lapse microscope in order to study their cellular structure. Since its pioneering, several methods of such imaging have been developed which allows these units to be studied in great detail. This enhances the knowledge on functions of cellular structures and tissues.

When you are undertaking the study, it is important to have good maintenance of the specimen. This means that if you expose them to certain environments that may stress-inducing, they will not give the appropriate imagery and give wrong information. Stressful conditions or environments are believed to cause an alteration in the biological and physiological processes of these structures.

In order to obtain live-cell fluorescent imaging, biologists need to obtain as much fluorescent light in a bid to reduce the incident light that may cause phototoxic effects. Since many cells and tissues are exposed to light in their life cycle, it is important for imaging applications to reduce exposure to light. To ensure this, microscopes should be able to collect as much light as possible.

So as to have a clear live-cell imagery, you have to make sure the light you are using is a fluorescent one and minimize any cases of incident light which may contain phototoxic characteristics. Actually, most structures have been functioning in light exposure it is therefore important to reduce this light when making imageries applications. The microscope should be the object to collect light but not exposing the specimen to the light.

Biologists should strive to ensure that such experiments do not completely damage the cellular structures under observation. This is however difficult because most elements used in the imaging system are damaging to the cells. This damage may affect the results. It is important to ensure the good condition of the cells before undertaking the study.

When choosing an optimal imaging system, there are several factors to be considered. These factors include the sensitivity of the detector, the viability of specimen and the required speed for image acquisition. It should make maximum use of light and also use few optical elements in the path of light. Many different types of fluorescent proteins of different colors are available to be used as fluorescent tags.

The benefits from such experiments include examples like monitoring molecular interaction, viral replication, and testing temperature dependency of drug-induced events. It is however disadvantageous since the cellular structures are damaged at the end of an experiment.




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