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Concept
Intravital microscopy
Résumé
Intravital microscopy is a form of microscopy that allows observing biological processes in live animals (in vivo) at a that makes distinguishing between individual cells of a tissue possible.
In mammals, in some experimental settings a surgical implantation of an imaging window is performed prior to intravital microscopy. This allows repeated observations over several days or weeks. For example, if researchers want to visualize liver cells of a live mouse they will implant an imaging window into mouse’s abdomen.
Mice are the most common choice of animals for intravital microscopy but in special cases other rodents such as rats might be more suitable. Animals are usually anesthetized throughout surgeries and imaging sessions.
Intravital microscopy is used in several areas of research including neurology, immunology, stem cell studies and others. This technique is particularly useful to assess a progression of a disease or an effect of a drug.
Intravital microscopy involves imaging cells of a live animal through an imaging window that is implanted into the animal tissue during a special surgery. The main advantage of intravital microscopy is that it allows imaging living cells while they are in the true environment of a complex multicellular organism. Thus, intravital microscopy allows researchers to study the behavior of cells in their natural environment or in vivo rather than in a cell culture. Another advantage of intravital microscopy is that the experiment can be set up in a way to allow observing changes in a living tissue of an organism over a period of time. This is useful for many areas of research including immunology and stem cell research.
High quality of modern microscopes and also permits subcellular imaging in live animals that in turn allows studying cell biology at molecular level in vivo. Advancements in fluorescent protein technology and genetic tools that enable controlled expression of a given gene at a specific time in a tissue of interest also played important role in intravital microscopy development.
Source officielle
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