Using A Microscope In 3D

Now in 3D! Microscope Offers New Way to View Live Cancer Cells

Nala Rogers | February 22, 2016

In what could transform the study of cells’ interactions with their environment, researchers have invented a microscope that can look at live cancer cells in 3D, with high resolution in every direction. Previously, high-resolution live imaging has been done with cells cultured on glass slides, which flattens samples. Live cells are highly sensitive to their surroundings, so the new microscopy strategy—which replaces glass slides with blocks of collagen—could help reveal more natural behaviors. The technique, called microenvironmental selective plane illumination microscopy (meSPIM), uses exceptionally long, thin beams of laser light to trigger fluorescence in a sample, causing it to glow.

Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2016-02/23/3d-microscope-cancer-cells/viewgallery/625773

<more at http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/02/now-3d-microscope-offers-new-way-view-live-cancer-cells; related articles: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2016-02/23/3d-microscope-cancer-cells (Microscope shows live cancer cells in high resolution 3D. February 23, 2016) and http://www.cell.com/developmental-cell/fulltext/S1534-5807(16)00089-7 (Quantitative Multiscale Cell Imaging in Controlled 3D Microenvironments. Erik S. Welf, Meghan K. Driscoll, Kevin M. Dean, Claudia Schäfer, Jun Chu, Michael W. Davidson, Michael Z. Lin, Gaudenz Danuser, and Reto Fiolka. Developmental Cell. Volume 36, Issue 4, p 462–475, 22 February 2016. [Summary: The microenvironment determines cell behavior, but the underlying molecular mechanisms are poorly understood because quantitative studies of cell signaling and behavior have been challenging due to insufficient spatial and/or temporal resolution and limitations on microenvironmental control. Here we introduce microenvironmental selective plane illumination microscopy (meSPIM) for imaging and quantification of intracellular signaling and submicrometer cellular structures as well as large-scale cell morphological and environmental features. We demonstrate the utility of this approach by showing that the mechanical properties of the microenvironment regulate the transition of melanoma cells from actin-driven protrusion to blebbing, and we present tools to quantify how cells manipulate individual collagen fibers. We leverage the nearly isotropic resolution of meSPIM to quantify the local concentration of actin and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase signaling on the surfaces of cells deep within 3D collagen matrices and track the many small membrane protrusions that appear in these more physiologically relevant environments.])>