Expanding boundaries - a cell biologist's guide to expansion microscopy.

ABSTRACT: Expansion microscopy (ExM) is a revolutionary novel approach to increase resolution in light microscopy. In contrast to super-resolution microscopy methods that rely on sophisticated technological advances, including novel instrumentation, ExM instead is entirely based on sample preparation. In ExM, labeled target molecules in fixed cells are anchored in a hydrogel, which is then physically enlarged by osmotic swelling. The isotropic swelling of the hydrogel pulls the labels apart from one another, and their relative organization can thus be resolved using conventional microscopes even if it was below the diffraction limit of light beforehand. As ExM can additionally benefit from the technical resolution enhancements achieved by super-resolution microscopy, it can reach into the nanometer

SUBMITTER: Humpfer N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11058692 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature