Occludin OCEL-domain interactions are required for maintenance and regulation of the tight junction barrier to macromolecular flux.

In vitro and in vivo studies implicate occludin in the regulation of paracellular macromolecular flux at steady state and in response to tumor necrosis factor (TNF). To define the roles of occludin in these processes, we established intestinal epithelia with stable occludin knockdown. Knockdown monolayers had markedly enhanced tight junction permeability to large molecules that could be modeled by size-selective channels with radii of ~62.

Time-resolved luminescence resonance energy transfer imaging of protein-protein interactions in living cells.

Lanthanide-based or luminescence resonance energy transfer (LRET) microscopy can be used to sensitively image interactions between reporter-labeled proteins in living mammalian cells. With LRET, luminescent lanthanide complexes are used as donors, conventional fluorophores are used as acceptors, and donor-sensitized acceptor emission occurs at time scales that reflect the long (~ms) lanthanide emission lifetime. These long-lived signals can be separated from short-lifetime (~ns) sample autofluorescence and directly excited acceptor fluorescence by using pulsed light to excite the specimen and by implementing a short delay (>100 ns) before detection, thereby increasing measurement sensitivity.

Time-resolved luminescence resonance energy transfer imaging of protein-protein interactions in living cells.

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) with fluorescent proteins permits high spatial resolution imaging of protein-protein interactions in living cells. However, substantial non-FRET fluorescence background can obscure small FRET signals, making many potential interactions unobservable by conventional FRET techniques. Here we demonstrate time-resolved microscopy of luminescence resonance energy transfer (LRET) for live-cell imaging of protein-protein interactions.

Luminescent terbium protein labels for time-resolved microscopy and screening.

Brilliance of terbium: Heterodimeric conjugates of trimethoprim covalently linked to sensitized terbium chelates bind to Escherichia coli dihydrofolate reductase fusion proteins with nanomolar affinity (see picture). Terbium luminescence enables sensitive and time-resolved detection of labeled proteins in vitro and on the surface of living mammalian cells.