title: Applications of confocal and fluorescence microscopy.
abstract: Fluorescence microscopy has become a powerful tool for both the localization of cellular components in fixed cells, using target-specific fluorescent probes and labeled antibodies, and the fluorescence imaging of ions in single living cells. Despite its markedly lower spatial resolution when compared with electron microscopy, the essentially non-invasive nature of light microscopy provides a unique tool for examining cell behaviour at the level of the single cell bringing new insight into both cellular heterogeneities and cell-cell interactions. Further developments in both fluorescent probes and instrumentation should provide even more powerful tools to probe the mechanisms of cell function, both in vitro and in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Physiology Group, King's College London, UK. K.Pedley@KCL.AC.UK
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Pedley
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006801:Humans; D007515:Islets of Langerhans / Q000166:cytology*; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes