title: Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy in cell biology.
abstract: Key events in cellular trafficking occur at the cell surface, and it is desirable to visualize these events without interference from other regions deeper within. This review describes a microscopy technique based on total internal reflection fluorescence which is well suited for optical sectioning at cell-substrate regions with an unusually thin region of fluorescence excitation. The technique has many other applications as well, most notably for studying biochemical kinetics and single biomolecule dynamics at surfaces. A brief summary of these applications is provided, followed by presentations of the physical basis for the technique and the various ways to implement total internal reflection fluorescence in a standard fluorescence microscope.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Biophysics Research Division, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. daxelrod@umich.edu
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Axelrod
mesh_terms: D003594:Cytoplasmic Granules; D007700:Kinetics; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D010777:Photochemistry