Physical chemistry in a single live cell: confocal microscopy.
Phys Chem Chem Phys
; 19(20): 12620-12627, 2017 May 24.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28489114
ABSTRACT
A live cell is a complex, yet extremely important container. Understanding the dynamics in a selected intracellular component is a challenging task. We have recently made significant progress in this direction using a confocal microscope as a tool. The smallest size of the focused spot in a confocal microscope is â¼0.2 µm (200 nm). This is nearly one hundred times smaller than the size of a live cell. Thus, one can selectively study different intracellular components/organelles in a live cell. In this paper, we discuss how one can image different intracellular components/organelles, record fluorescence spectra and decay at different locations, ascertain local polarity and viscosity, and monitor the dynamics of solvation, proton transfer, red-ox and other phenomena at specified locations/organelles inside a cell. We will highlight how this knowledge enriched us in differentiating between cancer and non-cancer cells, 3D tumor spheroids and towards drug delivery.
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Organelles
/
Microscopy, Confocal
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Year:
2017
Type:
Article