Calcium Imaging of Non-adherent Cells.

Live-cell imaging can reveal dynamic and multimodal cell signaling by monitoring calcium flux. Spatiotemporal changes in Ca concentrations instigate specific downstream processes and by categorizing these events, we can examine the language cells use to communicate both to themselves and with each other. Thus, calcium imaging is an understandably popular and versatile technique that relies on high-resolution optical data as measured by fluorescence intensity.

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors: Key targets for attenuating neurodegenerative diseases.

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are master regulators of immune functions via the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway and are expressed in microglia, the brain's resident immune cells. There is an extensive dialogue between the neurons and the glial cells around them from which microglia are tasked with monitoring, nurturing, and defending their microenvironment. Dysregulation of any of these processes can have devastating and long-lasting consequences involving microglia-mediated neuroinflammation associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease, amongst others.

A method for high-content functional imaging of intracellular calcium responses in gelatin-immobilized non-adherent cells.

Functional imaging of the intracellular calcium concentration [Ca] using fluorescent indicators is a powerful and frequently applied method for assessing various biological questions in vitro, including ion channel function and intracellular signaling in homeostasis and disease. In functional [Ca] imaging experiments, the fluorescence intensity of single cells is typically recorded during application of a chemical stimulus, i.e.