Development of Non-invasive Methods to Study Cell Death.
A novel non-invasive marker to monitor apoptosis in the living cell is presented. A human neuroblastoma cell line expressing an integral nuclear pore membrane protein tagged with GFP (green fluorescent protein) has been established, which enables monitoring of the nuclear envelope dynamics in intact cell cultures by fluorescence microscopy. During apoptosis, but not during necrosis, the GFP fluorescence around the nuclear rim disappears at a stage preceding nucleosomal DNA fragmentation. This phenomenon can thus be used as an early and convenient marker to specifically diagnose apoptotic development in cell cultures.
Imreh
G
G
Department of Biochemistry, Stockholm, Sweden.
Beckman
M
M
Iverfeldt
K
K
Hallberg
E
E