Imaging of keratin dynamics during the cell cycle and in response to phosphatase inhibition

 

Reinhard Windoffer and Rudolf E. Leube

Contents:

I. Introduction

II. Materials and Instrumentation

            A. Special Reagents

            B. Cell Lines

            C. Microscopes

            D. Culture Chamber

III. Procedures

            A. Generation of Cell Lines Producing Fluorescent Keratin Filaments

                        1. Preparation of cDNA Constructs

                        2. Generation of Stable Cell Lines

                        3. Characterization of Cell Lines

            B. Imaging of Keratin Filament Dynamics in Interphase

                        1. Preparation of Cells

                        2. Image Acquisition

            C. Special Aspects of Recording in Mitotic Cells

            D. Imaging in the Presence of Phosphatase Inhibitors

                        1. Determination of Suitable Drug Concentration

                        2. Examination of Reversibility

                        3. Light Dependency

            E. Fluorescence Recovery after Photobleaching

            F. Data Analysis

                        1. Preparation of Movies

                        2. 3D-Reconstructions

                        3. Quantification of Soluble Pool

                        4. Quantification of Fluorescence Recovery

                        5. Diagrammatic Representations of Time-Dependent Fluorescence

                                   a. Mobility Diagrams

                                   b. Time-Space Diagrams

                                   c. Intensity Diagrams

IV. Pearls and Pitfalls

            A. Transient versus Stable Transfection

            B. Epifluorescence Microscopy versus Confocal Laser Scan Microscopy

            C. Effects of Light

V. Discussion and Concluding Remarks

VI. References