Recently, Jay Groves and his team at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a new type of chromatography method for studying cell membranes.
Groves explained: "What we developed is a nanodot array platform embedded in the cell membrane. When it operates in the cell membrane of a living cell, it will provide a physical means for detecting and manipulating the cell membrane components, including Signal cluster.
So far, scientists have mainly studied cell membranes through various microscopes. Due to the diffraction effect of light, it is difficult to observe structures with a size smaller than 250 nm using conventional microscopy techniques. However, most cell membrane components, such as protein receptors, are smaller than 250 nm. In recent years, some ultra-high-resolution microscopic techniques that can break through diffraction barriers have come out, but these techniques are more suitable for observing individual static images, and cannot be an ideal technique for detecting constantly moving and changing cell membranes. Therefore, scientists need a new technology for cell membrane research.
The technology developed by Groves and his team first required the creation of an artificial lipid membrane containing proteins that will bind to receptors on the cell surface before the gold nanoparticle array is deposited on the cell membrane surface. In the next step, the receptor on the cell surface is fluorescently labeled, and then the cell is brought close to the artificial membrane indefinitely, which causes the protein in the artificial membrane and the receptor in the cell membrane to bind to each other.
Normally, the receptor continuously moves around the cell membrane. But now they bind to proteins in artificial membranes, and their movement is constrained by the array of gold nanoparticles. Only when the gap between the receptors is smaller than the gold nanoparticles can they move, and the fluorescent marker will show any movement trajectory. By changing the distance between gold nanoparticles, Groves and his team can determine the size of the receptor and study the movement that affects the function of the receptor.
This is the first experiment of a new form of chromatographic method by which Groves and his team study receptors on the surface of T cells in the immune system. These T cell receptors (TCRs) include aggregated protein clusters that can bind together when they encounter protein antigens. By using artificial membranes to attach different concentrations of antigens and change the distance between gold nanoparticles, Groves and his team found that the size of the clusters depends on the antigen concentration.
"The T cell receptor micro-cluster signal system has been fully studied with the help of traditional light microscopy, but this part is something we did not understand in the past." Groves said: "This is a principled evidence that it shows The connection of materials to living cells is another step in achieving molecular control of the cell. "
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