Super-resolution imaging of the dynamic cleavage of intercellular tunneling nanotubes

Abstract

As a new method of cell–cell communication, tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) play important roles in cell–cell signaling and mass exchanges. However, a lack of powerful tools to visualize dynamic TNTs with high temporal/spatial resolution restricts the exploration of their formation and cleavage, hindering the complete understanding of its mechanism. Herein, we present the first example of using stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM) to observe the tube-like structures of TNTs linking live cells with an easily prepared fluorescent dye. Because of this new imaging microscopy, the cleavage process of TNTs was observed with a high spatial resolution.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

super-resolution / tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) / live cell

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Acknowledgements

This work has been partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61875131, 61525503, 61620106016, and 61835009), Shenzhen Basic Research Project (Nos. JCYJ20170818100931714, JCYJ20180305125549234, and JCYJ20170412105003520), and Shenzhen International Cooperation Research Project (No. GJHZ20180928161811821).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-020-1068-1 and is accessible for authorized users.

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