Overview of Live‐Cell Imaging: Requirements and Methods Used

Live-cell imaging is an important analytical tool in laboratories studying biomedical research disciplines, such as cell biology, neurobiology, pharmacology, and developmental biology. Imaging of fixed cells and tissues (for which photobleaching is the major issue) usually requires a high illumination intensity and long exposure time; however, these must be avoided when imaging living cells. Live-cell microscopy usually involves a compromise between obtaining image quality and maintaining healthy cells. Therefore, to avoid a high illumination intensity and long exposure time, spatial and temporal resolutions are often limited in an experiment. Imaging live cells involves a wide range of contrast-enhanced imaging methods for optical microscopy. Most investigations use one of the many types of fluorescence microscopy, and this is often combined with transmitted light techniques, which will be discussed below. Continual advances in imaging techniques and design of fluorescent probes improve the power of this approach, ensuring that live-cell imaging will continue to be an important tool in biology.

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