{"id":11999,"date":"2017-04-11T06:34:29","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T06:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=11999"},"modified":"2017-04-11T06:34:29","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T06:34:29","slug":"new-dye-allows-super-imaging-cells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/new-dye-allows-super-imaging-cells\/","title":{"rendered":"New dye allows super-imaging of cells"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new dye might allow researchers to view natural processes in extremely small components of living cells over a prolonged period of time; a previously unattainable feat.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Molecular structure of C-Naphox.
Credit : Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Optical microscopy allows researchers to see and distinguish between objects that are about 200 nanometres (nm) apart. In comparison, a human hair is about 90,000 nm thick. Unfortunately, most objects of interest in biology, such as organelles in cells and proteins, are much smaller than 200 nm.<\/span><\/p>\n

Biologists have been looking for ways to improve the resolution of microscopes, pioneering the field of super-resolution microscopy. Stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy is one such improvement: a source of light focuses on a point of interest while the surrounding zone is kept in the dark and toned down, so to speak, using a special laser to form a background without interferences. This technique is fluorescence-based, using special dyes to tag the cells or structures of interest.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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(Above) STED microscopy images of cells with C-Naphox remained stable. (Below) STED microscopy images with a commercially available compound.
Credit : Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules (ITbM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

STED microscopy is very effective, allowing researchers to detect objects that are only tens of nanometres apart. However, it does come with its own set of challenges: most importantly, that the special laser used to tone down the background is, counter-intuitively, very intense. Not many dyes can withstand this intensity without losing fluorescence so quickly that only a few images can be taken, which is much too fast for the needs of researchers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Shigehiro Yamaguchi and Professor Tetsuya Higashiyama from the Institute of Transformative Bio-Molecules at Nagoya University in Japan have developed a dye, called C-Naphox, that, thanks to a carbon-bonded structure, is very stable and does not dim even under the harsh conditions of STED microscopy. It is also non-toxic, so it can be used in live cells.<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers found that the dye remained stable after two hours of irradiation. When taking multiple images in succession\u2014a key part of super-resolution microscopy as it allows researchers to follow live cells undergoing their natural processes over time\u2014the team found that C-Naphox remained stable after five images. Even after taking 50 images, more than 80% of the C-Naphox signal remained. In comparison, one of the best options available commercially, a compound called Alexa 488, dimmed almost to invisibility after taking only five images. Once widely available, C-Naphox should enable prolonged recording of live cells using STED microscopy; a previously unattainable feat.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new dye might allow researchers to view natural processes in extremely small components of living cells over a prolonged period of time; a previously unattainable feat. Optical microscopy allows researchers to see and distinguish between objects that are about 200 nanometres (nm) apart. In comparison, a human hair is about 90,000 nm thick. Unfortunately, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419.jpg",1156,904,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419-300x235.jpg",300,235,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419-768x601.jpg",750,587,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419-1024x801.jpg",750,587,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419.jpg",1156,904,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419.jpg",1156,904,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419.jpg",1023,800,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419.jpg",729,570,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419.jpg",600,469,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419.jpg",600,469,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419.jpg",627,490,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419.jpg",460,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419.jpg",83,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419.jpg",640,500,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419.jpg",96,75,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/4419.jpg",150,117,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}