Who Needs A Fluorescence Microscope?
Fluorescence-Microscopes are always labeled, along with other high tech microscopy techniques, as invaluable to research in the life sciences. Fluorescence microscopy involves the use of fluorescent dyes, specifically those containing fluorophores, in order to visualize certain cell components. Fluorophores will allow certain cell components to show up as glowing yellow, green, or red structures under the microscope, which, in turn, can allow scientists to better visualize cell components and proceed with their research. But who needs a fluorescence microscope?
The work a fluorescence microscope does is not possible without the fluorophores. Fluorophores absorb light at a certain wavelength; fluorophores use this blast of short-wavelength but high energy light as their electrons get excited and shift to higher energy orbitals within the atom of the fluorophore. When the electrons return to their lower energy levels, they release a longer wavelength of light, at a lower energy, which forms the characteristic color of the fluorophore. It is this color that the fluorescence microscope selects for, and that which the fluorescence microscope user sees when he or she uses the instrument to visualize certain cell components.
A fluorophore is bound, or conjugated, to a special molecule that can detect the presence of certain cell components. This molecule is usually an antibody, or a protein molecule that binds specifically to certain cell components. It is this antibody that dictates, in part, where fluorescence microscopy can be used.
Immunology Directly Benefits from Fluorescence Microscopy
Our own immune system relies on its battalion of antibodies for power. Our own antibodies are specific to certain antigens, or infectious agents. When the body’s antibodies detect the presence of a specific infectious agent, the body launches an all-out war on the antigen, thanks to the antibodies that work on the frontlines. In the laboratory, scientists also use antibodies in order to detect the presence of infectious agents; immunologists, in particular, need fluorescence microscopy in order to either study different infectious agents, new cures to old diseases, or even make more precise diagnoses.
Immunologists can use antibodies bound to fluorophores in order to understand what kinds of human antibodies bind to certain infectious agents, and in order to know if there are new infectious agents emerging that humans are not equipped to fight. Scientists can also use antibodies bound to fluorophores in order to study the effect of different potential cures on an antigen. If antigens are killed, they can be washed out of a sample, or the fluorophore-antibody complex might not bind to them at all.
A more common procedure is the use of fluorescence microscopy in order to make a diagnosis. A fluorophore-antibody conjugate is introduced to a biological sample, say serum, blood, or a cross section of infected tissue. If an antigen of interest is present, the fluorophore-antibody conjugate can bind to it, and the sample will glow a certain color under the fluorescence microscope. This way, a diagnosis can be made easily.
Microbiologists and Oncologists Also Need Fluorescence Microscopy
Antibodies can also be designed to target and detect the presence of harmful microbes, be they in water, food, or soil. Microbial contamination is a big problem in many countries where clean water can be difficult to come by, so fluorescence microscopy can be useful for scientists to detect if contamination levels are high, so that measures can be taken for water to be purified properly. Fluorescence microscopy is also useful for food microbiologists who want to check for the presence of harmful bacteria in food samples.
Oncologists, or scientists who study cancer, also need fluorescence microscopy in order to understand the effects of certain toxins on normal cells, if these normal cells become cancerous; and the effects of certain toxins on cancer cells, if these cancer cells are killed off. Some antibodies can be designed to bind to the surfaces of normal cells or cancer cells in order to facilitate studies in this field.
New Fields Can Benefit from the Use of Fluorescence Microscopy
Molecular physiology, or the study of cell structures, has also benefited from fluorescence microscopy in recent years. Antibodies can be designed to latch directly onto cellular structures, such as actin filaments that hold up the structure of the cell, or even specific chromosomes. Scientists can even use fluorescence microscopy in order to carry out karyotyping more effectively. They can segregate chromosomes into pairs and see if certain parts have been exchanged amongst different chromosomes, if there are more than two chromosomes of a kind, or of there are missing chromosomes. Such anomalies can be indicative of different diseases.
Fluorescence-Microscopes still have many other uses in many other fields, and not only in the biological sciences. As research progresses, industrial pharmacists and chemists can also use fluorescence microscopy in order to carry out their own studies. So who needs a fluorescence microscope? Everyone who needs fluorescent dyes and molecules in order to understand the microscopic, unseen world better.
