Gallagher Brendan, Zhao Yongxin
Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Discoveries (Craiova). 2019 Sep 30;7(3):e101. doi: 10.15190/d.2019.14.
Biologists have long looked for ways to circumvent the physical diffraction limit of light and have developed many strategies to accomplish this. While many techniques employed to image sub-diffraction-limit structures rely on sophisticated equipment and computational methods, expansion microscopy (ExM) is unique in that it provides increase in resolution by physically expanding the sample embedded in a water-swellable hydrogel. ExM has rapidly grown in prevalence, owing to its ease of use and economic nature - all necessary reagents are commercially available, and samples may be imaged in large volume on conventional fluorescence microscopes. Here, we demonstrate the power of expansion microscopy on imaging synaptic connections onto a dopaminergic neuron, in the mouse substantia nigra pars compacta, with nanoscale resolution.
长期以来，生物学家一直在寻找规避光的物理衍射极限的方法，并为此开发了许多策略。虽然用于对亚衍射极限结构进行成像的许多技术都依赖于精密的设备和计算方法，但扩展显微镜（ExM）却独具特色，它通过物理方式扩展嵌入水可膨胀水凝胶中的样本，从而提高分辨率。由于其易用性和经济性，ExM的应用迅速普及——所有必需的试剂都有商业供应，并且样本可以在传统荧光显微镜下进行大体积成像。在这里，我们展示了扩展显微镜在以纳米级分辨率对小鼠黑质致密部中多巴胺能神经元上的突触连接进行成像方面的强大能力。
