Two-photon Imaging

Intravital two-photon imaging of immune cells

The most relevant experimental setting to address the mechanisms that navigate immune cells into, within and out of lymphoid and non-lymphoid tissues remains the live animal, regardless of the value of the diverse array of experimental systems to probe immunological and molecular functions in vitro. The major aim of this project is to provide a state-of-the-art two-photon (2-PIVM) bio-imaging core platform to the members of the Collaborative Research Centre 914 (CRC 914).

We provide animal models allowing 2-PIVM of immune cells in several mouse tissues and organs, including the bone marrow, the lymph node, arterial wall, thymus, the spleen, the lungs, the gastric mucosa, the ear, and the cremaster muscle. We use transgenic mice in which eGFP or DsRed are expressed in distinct cell lineages, including hematopoietic progenitor stem cells, monocytes, neutrophils, dendritic cells, or T cells. Imaging is done under both non-infectious and infectious S2 safety conditions. We provide professional assistance in image analysis using the following software: Volocity™ software, ImageJ™, and ImSpector™.