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Chemical reactivation of quenched fluorescent protein molecules enables resin-embedded fluorescence microimaging.

ABSTRACT: Resin embedding is a well-established technique to prepare biological specimens for microscopic imaging. However, it is not compatible with modern green-fluorescent protein (GFP) fluorescent-labelling technique because it significantly quenches the fluorescence of GFP and its variants. Previous empirical optimization efforts are good for thin tissue but not successful on macroscopic tissue blocks as the quenching mechanism remains uncertain. Here we show most of the quenched GFP molecules are structurally preserved and not denatured after routine embedding in resin, and can be chemically reactivated to a fluorescent state by alkaline buffer during imaging. We observe up to 98% preservation in yellow-fluorescent protein case, and improve the fluorescence intensity 11.8-fold compared with unprocessed samples. We demonstrate fluorescence microimaging of resin-embedded EGFP/EYFP-labelled tissue block without noticeable loss of labelled structures. This work provides a turning point for the imaging of fluorescent protein-labelled specimens after resin embedding.

SUBMITTER: Xiong H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4059927 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundTo study the chemical determinants of small molecule transport inside cells, it is crucial to visualize relationships between the chemical structure of small molecules and their associated subcellular distribution patterns. For this purpose, we experimented with cells incubated with a synthetic combinatorial library of fluorescent, membrane-permeant small molecule chemical agents. With an automated high content screening instrument, the intracellular distribution patterns of these chemical agents were microscopically captured in image data sets, and analyzed off-line with machine vision and cheminformatics algorithms. Nevertheless, it remained challenging to interpret correlations linking the structure and properties of chemical agents to their subcellular localization patterns in large numbers of cells, captured across large number of images.ResultsTo address this challenge, we constructed a Multidimensional Online Virtual Image Display (MOVID) visualization platform using off-the-shelf hardware and software components. For analysis, the image data set acquired from cells incubated with a combinatorial library of fluorescent molecular probes was sorted based on quantitative relationships between the chemical structures, physicochemical properties or predicted subcellular distribution patterns. MOVID enabled visual inspection of the sorted, multidimensional image arrays: Using a multipanel desktop liquid crystal display (LCD) and an avatar as a graphical user interface, the resolution of the images was automatically adjusted to the avatar's distance, allowing the viewer to rapidly navigate through high resolution image arrays, zooming in and out of the images to inspect and annotate individual cells exhibiting interesting staining patterns. In this manner, MOVID facilitated visualization and interpretation of quantitative structure-localization relationship studies. MOVID also facilitated direct, intuitive exploration of the relationship between the chemical structures of the probes and their microscopic, subcellular staining patterns.ConclusionMOVID can provide a practical, graphical user interface and computer-assisted image data visualization platform to facilitate bioimage data mining and cheminformatics analysis of high content, phenotypic screening experiments.

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Chemical reactivation of quenched fluorescent protein molecules enables resin-embedded fluorescence microimaging.

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