Tracking collective cell migration by confocal microscopy

通过共聚焦显微镜追踪集体细胞迁移

• 批准号: RTI-2022-00279
• 负责人: Emery, Gregory
• 金额: $ 4.27万
• 依托单位: Université de Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=743050
• 关键词: Tracking; collective; cell; migration; confocal

Cells adopt different morphologies to perform various functions. Understanding the mechanisms involved in morphodynamical changes is thus important to understand fundamental cellular processes including cell migration, cell division or cell signalling. One potent approach to study morphodynamics is to use powerful microscopes to monitor changes in cell shape and the distribution of molecular components in real time. This can be done by using various cellular fluorescent markers, thus enabling the dynamic tracking of cellular constituents in real time. In the past 20 years or so, such visualization of cellular proteins in real time has enabled enormous progress in our understanding of the mechanisms of cell migration, cell division and cell signalling, yet there is still much we need to learn in order to comprehend how these processes works. The research programs of the 4 applicants are aimed precisely at studying the mechanistic details of these complex processes. To this end, they rely on powerful microscopes that enable them to visualize how certain proteins behave inside cells in vivo and in culture, and thus gain insight into the function of these proteins and into the mechanisms of cell morphodynamics. Yet their ability to monitor these dynamic events would require to be able to track processes such as cell migration and cell divisions for long period of time. Currently, their equipment is limiting as it lacks the ability to image cell by DIC simultaneously with fluorescence and to control the position of the focal plane for long time-lapse recordings. The goal of this proposal is to acquire upgrades that will enable such specific live imaging techniques, thus enabling the applicants to carry out their research programs and further our mechanistic understanding of how cells shape is regulated.

细胞采用不同的形态来执行各种功能。因此，了解形态动力学变化所涉及的机制对于了解基本的细胞过程（包括细胞迁移、细胞分裂或细胞信号传导）非常重要。研究形态动力学的一个有效方法是使用功能强大的显微镜来监测细胞形状的变化和真实的分子成分的分布。这可以通过使用各种细胞荧光标记物来完成，从而能够真实的实时动态跟踪细胞成分。在过去的20年左右，这种真实的时间的细胞蛋白质可视化使我们对细胞迁移，细胞分裂和细胞信号传导机制的理解取得了巨大进展，但为了理解这些过程如何工作，我们仍然需要学习很多东西。4名申请人的研究计划旨在研究这些复杂过程的机械细节。为此，他们依靠强大的显微镜，使他们能够可视化某些蛋白质在体内和培养细胞内的行为，从而深入了解这些蛋白质的功能和细胞形态动力学的机制。然而，他们监测这些动态事件的能力需要能够长期跟踪细胞迁移和细胞分裂等过程。目前，他们的设备是有限的，因为它缺乏通过DIC与荧光同时成像细胞的能力，以及控制长时间延时记录的焦平面位置的能力。该提案的目标是获得升级，使这种特定的实时成像技术成为可能，从而使申请人能够开展他们的研究计划，并进一步了解细胞形状是如何调节的。