Digital optical microscope (housing inside biosafety cabinet): a promising imaging technology for micro- and cell-biology, and histopathology

Author(s):  
Anamika Elizabeth Kujur ◽  
Rinsa Salahudeen ◽  
Mayanglambam Suheshkumar Singh
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fahuan Song ◽  
Mei Tian ◽  
Hong Zhang

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a serious disease of the center nervous system (CNS). It is a devastating injury with sudden loss of motor, sensory, and autonomic function distal to the level of trauma and produces great personal and societal costs. Currently, there are no remarkable effective therapies for the treatment of SCI. Compared to traditional treatment methods, stem cell transplantation therapy holds potential for repair and functional plasticity after SCI. However, the mechanism of stem cell therapy for SCI remains largely unknown and obscure partly due to the lack of efficient stem cell trafficking methods. Molecular imaging technology including positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), optical imaging (i.e., bioluminescence imaging (BLI)) gives the hope to complete the knowledge concerning basic stem cell biology survival, migration, differentiation, and integration in real time when transplanted into damaged spinal cord. In this paper, we mainly review the molecular imaging technology in stem cell therapy for SCI.


2000 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 26-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Tague ◽  
Lisa M. Miller

It has become increasingly obvious that infrared microspectroscopy can be the analysis tool of choice when determining the chemical composition of biological and biomedical samples. Frequently, fluorescence illumination is required for sample characterization, which previously required the use of a separate optical microscope. There has also been a need in the semiconductor manufacturing industry for a single tool for visualizing particle contaminants on integrated wafers as well as the ability to chemically determine their nature. There is now a single microscope platform for conducting rapid Nomarski differential interference contrast and fluorescence illumination sample visualization as well as infrared analysis. This novel infrared microscope has applicability to many fields of investigation, including pharmacology, forensics, cell biology, histology, gemology, and geology.


Microscopy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keisuke Ohta ◽  
Shingo Hirashima ◽  
Yoshihiro Miyazono ◽  
Akinobu Togo ◽  
Kei-ichiro Nakamura

Abstract Correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) methods combined with live imaging can be applied to understand the dynamics of organelles. Although recent advances in cell biology and light microscopy have helped in visualizing the details of organelle activities, observing their ultrastructure or organization of surrounding microenvironments is a challenging task. Therefore, CLEM, which allows us to observe the same area as an optical microscope with an electron microscope, has become a key technique in cell biology. Unfortunately, most CLEM methods have technical drawbacks, and many researchers face difficulties in applying CLEM methods. Here, we propose a live three-dimensional CLEM method, combined with a three-dimensional reconstruction technique using focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy tomography, as a solution to such technical barriers. We review our method, the associated technical limitations and the options considered to perform live CLEM.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francele de Abreu Carlan ◽  
Lenira Maria Nunes Sepel ◽  
Elgion Lucio Silva Loreto

Basic concepts of cell biology are essential for scientific literacy. However, because many aspects of cell theory and cell functioning are quite abstract, students experience difficulties understanding them. In this study, we investigated whether diverse teaching resources such as the use of replicas of Leeuwenhoek’s microscope, visualization of cells using an optical microscope, construction of three-dimensional cell models, and reading of a comic book about cells could mitigate the difficulties encountered when teaching cell biology to 8th-grade primary school students. The results suggest that these didactic activities improve students’ ability to learn concrete concepts about cell biology, such as the composition of living beings, growth, and cicatrization. Also, the development of skills was observed, as, for example, the notion of cell size. However, no significant improvements were observed in students’ ability to learn about abstract topics, such as the structures of subcellular organelles and their functions. These results suggest that many students in this age have not yet concluded Piaget’s concrete operational stage, indicating that the concepts required for the significant learning of abstract subjects need to be explored more thoroughly in the process of designing programs that introduce primary school students to cell biology.


Author(s):  
William B. Amos

The confocal optical microscope, using laser illumination, has now gained widespread acceptance (see volume edited by Pawley) Its advantage in providing clear optical sections, particularly with fluorescent specimens, is well known. Of the many confocal instruments now in use in cell biology, the applications can be classified into five different categories.The chief use is to give three-dimensional information about conventionally prepared fluorescent specimens. A notable example is the in vivo mapping of an identified neurone through several days of embryonic life by O'Rourke, Scott Fraser and colleagues at Irvine, USA. There has also been much work on in situ hybridisation, morphometry of solid tumours, oncogene product localisation and many aspects of the cytoskeleton.The second use has been in reflection imaging of cell surface contacts, of isolated microtubules and microorganisms, of parts of the eye and of reaction products such as peroxidase.The third application is the measurement of intracellular parameters such as pH and calcium ion concentration within a defined volume.


Author(s):  
William H. Zucker

Planktonic foraminifera are widely-distributed and abundant zooplankters. They are significant as water mass indicators and provide evidence of paleotemperatures and events which occurred during Pleistocene glaciation. In spite of their ecological and paleological significance, little is known of their cell biology. There are few cytological studies of these organisms at the light microscope level and some recent reports of their ultrastructure.Specimens of Globigerinoides ruber, Globigerina bulloides, Globigerinoides conglobatus and Globigerinita glutinata were collected in Bermuda waters and fixed in a cold cacodylate-buffered 6% glutaraldehyde solution for two hours. They were then rinsed, post-fixed in Palade's fluid, rinsed again and stained with uranyl acetate. This was followed by graded ethanol dehydration, during which they were identified and picked clean of debris. The specimens were finally embedded in Epon 812 by placing each organism in a separate BEEM capsule. After sectioning with a diamond knife, stained sections were viewed in a Philips 200 electron microscope.


Author(s):  
W. Bernard

In comparison to many other fields of ultrastructural research in Cell Biology, the successful exploration of genes and gene activity with the electron microscope in higher organisms is a late conquest. Nucleic acid molecules of Prokaryotes could be successfully visualized already since the early sixties, thanks to the Kleinschmidt spreading technique - and much basic information was obtained concerning the shape, length, molecular weight of viral, mitochondrial and chloroplast nucleic acid. Later, additonal methods revealed denaturation profiles, distinction between single and double strandedness and the use of heteroduplexes-led to gene mapping of relatively simple systems carried out in close connection with other methods of molecular genetics.


Author(s):  
K. Jacobson ◽  
A. Ishihara ◽  
B. Holifield ◽  
F. Zhang

Our laboratory is concerned with understanding the dynamic structure of the plasma membrane with particular reference to the movement of membrane constituents during cell locomotion. In addition to the standard tools of molecular cell biology, we employ both fluorescence recovery after photo- bleaching (FRAP) and digitized fluorescence microscopy (DFM) to investigate individual cells. FRAP allows the measurement of translational mobility of membrane and cytoplasmic molecules in small regions of single, living cells. DFM is really a new form of light microscopy in that the distribution of individual classes of ions, molecules, and macromolecules can be followed in single, living cells. By employing fluorescent antibodies to defined antigens or fluorescent analogs of cellular constituents as well as ultrasensitive, electronic image detectors and video image averaging to improve signal to noise, fluorescent images of living cells can be acquired over an extended period without significant fading and loss of cell viability.


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