Special Issue "Fluorescence Imaging and Analysis of Cellular System"

A special issue of Journal of Imaging (ISSN 2313-433X). This special issue belongs to the section "Medical Imaging".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 August 2023 | Viewed by 4361

Special Issue Editor

Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA
Interests: live cell imaging; fluorescent probes; ratiomentric dyes; molecular biosensors; membrane lipid imaging and quantification; inhibitors for protein–protein and protein–lipid interections

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Understanding the complicated cellular and molecular processing inside a living cell is crucial for the precise deciphering of the intricate network of information that drives the biology of a living system. Cellular fluorescence imaging emerged as a tool that enables the integration of biological complexity into drug discovery by unravelling the mystery of the live cell. The most widely applied technique for the cellular imaging of live cells is the use of fluorescent proteins (FPs) to light up cellular structures such as organelles or biomolecules. To identify and track biomolecules in the complex environment of the cell, molecular specificity is essential. Encouraged by the noteworthy benefits that FPs provide for cellular imaging, there has also been a focus on developing methods for the labelling of biomolecules with small-molecule probes, enabling greater labelling refinement, and for extending fluorescent tagging to more diverse biomolecules. One such effort includes bio-orthogonal labelling, which is the use of diverse methodologies for labelling cellular constituents in vitro and in vivo with exceptional chemical probes such as fluorophores or cross-linking reagents. Such fluorophore/fluorescent probes must be compatible with the cellular environment, show strong fluorescence and be photostable, as well as being nontoxic and permeable across cellular and organellar membranes.

This Special Issue of Journal of Imaging aims to feature reports of new developments in live cell fluorescence imaging systems/methods to accomplish bio-orthogonal labelling and imaging by using chemical probes such as organic fluorophores, FPs, nanoprobes, and quantum dots.

Dr. Ashutosh Sharma
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Imaging is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fluorescence imaging
  • bio-orthogonal labeling
  • fluorescent protein
  • chemical probes for imaging
  • fluorophores for imaging
  • imaging tools for live cells

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Picomolar Detection of Lead Ions (Pb2+) by Functionally Modified Fluorescent Carbon Quantum Dots from Watermelon Juice and Their Imaging in Cancer Cells
J. Imaging 2023, 9(1), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging9010019 - 16 Jan 2023
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Abstract
Water contamination due to the presence of lead is one of the leading causes of environmental and health hazards because of poor soil and groundwater waste management. Herein we report the synthesis of functionally modified luminescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) obtained from watermelon [...] Read more.
Water contamination due to the presence of lead is one of the leading causes of environmental and health hazards because of poor soil and groundwater waste management. Herein we report the synthesis of functionally modified luminescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) obtained from watermelon juice as potential nanomaterials for the detection of toxic Pb2+ ions in polluted water and cancer cells. By introducing surface passivating ligands such as ethanolamine (EA) and ethylenediamine (ED) in watermelon juice, watermelon-ethanolamine (WMEA)-CQDs and watermelon-ethylenediamine (WMED)-CQDs exhibited a remarkable ~10-fold and ~6-fold increase in fluorescence intensity with respect to non-doped WM-CQDs. The relative fluorescence quantum yields of WMEA-CQDs and WMED-CQDs were found to be 8% and 7%, respectively, in an aqueous medium. Among various functionally-modified CQDs, only WMED-CQDs showed high selectivity towards Pb2+ ions with a remarkably good limit of detection (LoD) of 190 pM, which is less than that of the permissible limit (72 nM) in drinking water. The functionally altered WMED-CQDs detected Pb2+ metal ions in polluted water and in a human cervical cancer cell line (HeLa), thus advocating new vistas for eco-friendly nanomaterials for their use as diagnostic tools in the environment and biomedical research areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fluorescence Imaging and Analysis of Cellular System)
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Article
Gadolinium and Bio-Metal Association: A Concentration Dependency Tested in a Renal Allograft and Investigated by Micro-Synchrotron XRF
J. Imaging 2022, 8(10), 254; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging8100254 - 21 Sep 2022
Viewed by 865
Abstract
Aims: This study aimed to investigate gadolinium (Gd) and bio-metals in a renal allograft of a patient who was shortly after transplantation repeatedly exposed to a Gd-based contrast agent (GBCA), with the purpose of determining whether Gd can be proven and spatially and [...] Read more.
Aims: This study aimed to investigate gadolinium (Gd) and bio-metals in a renal allograft of a patient who was shortly after transplantation repeatedly exposed to a Gd-based contrast agent (GBCA), with the purpose of determining whether Gd can be proven and spatially and quantitatively imaged. Further elemental associations between Gd and bio-metals were also investigated. Materials and Methods: Archival paraffin-embedded kidney tissue (eight weeks after transplantation) was investigated by microscopic synchrotron X-ray fluorescence (µSRXRF) at the DORIS III storage ring, beamline L, at HASYLAB/DESY (Hamburg, Germany). For the quantification of elements, X-ray spectra were peak-fitted, and the net peak intensities were normalized to the intensity of the incoming monochromatic beam intensity. Concentrations were calculated by fundamental parameter-based program quant and external standardization. Results: Analysis of about 15,000 µSRXRF spectra (comprising allograft tissue of four cm2) Gd distribution could be quantitatively demonstrated in a near histological resolution. Mean Gd resulted in 24 ± 55 ppm with a maximum of 2363 ppm. The standard deviation of ±55 ppm characterized the huge differences in Gd and not in detection accuracy. Gd was heterogeneously but not randomly distributed and was mostly found in areas with interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy. Concentrations of all other investigated elements in the allograft resembled those found in normal kidney tissue. No correlations between Gd and bio-metals such as calcium, strontium or zinc below ~40 ppm Gd existed. In areas with extremely high Gd, Gd was associated with iron and zinc. Conclusions: We could show that no dose-dependent association between Gd and bio-metals exists—least in renal tissue—at Gd concentrations below ~40 ppm Gd. This was proven compared with a GBCA-exposed end-stage renal failure in which the mean Gd was ten-fold higher. Our results could shed additional light on Gd metabolism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fluorescence Imaging and Analysis of Cellular System)
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Article
upU-Net Approaches for Background Emission Removal in Fluorescence Microscopy
J. Imaging 2022, 8(5), 142; https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging8050142 - 20 May 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1894
Abstract
The physical process underlying microscopy imaging suffers from several issues: some of them include the blurring effect due to the Point Spread Function, the presence of Gaussian or Poisson noise, or even a mixture of these two types of perturbation. Among them, auto–fluorescence [...] Read more.
The physical process underlying microscopy imaging suffers from several issues: some of them include the blurring effect due to the Point Spread Function, the presence of Gaussian or Poisson noise, or even a mixture of these two types of perturbation. Among them, auto–fluorescence presents other artifacts in the registered image, and such fluorescence may be an important obstacle in correctly recognizing objects and organisms in the image. For example, particle tracking may suffer from the presence of this kind of perturbation. The objective of this work is to employ Deep Learning techniques, in the form of U-Nets like architectures, for background emission removal. Such fluorescence is modeled by Perlin noise, which reveals to be a suitable candidate for simulating such a phenomenon. The proposed architecture succeeds in removing the fluorescence, and at the same time, it acts as a denoiser for both Gaussian and Poisson noise. The performance of this approach is furthermore assessed on actual microscopy images and by employing the restored images for particle recognition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fluorescence Imaging and Analysis of Cellular System)
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