Digital Confocal
The ability of cells to adapt to their environment is mediated by highly controlled signaling pathways. In many cases, the initiation of these pathways by extracellular signals, such as hormones or cytokines, leads to the translocation of proteins from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. Once in the nucleus, these proteins can regulate the expression of target genes. Assays requiring precise identification of sub-cellular structures or molecules within different cellular compartments can benefit from the ability of image deconvolution to improve identification of the specific fluorescence signal against potentially high background caused by out-of-focus light. The ImageXpress Pico system with Digital Confocal 2D on-the-fly deconvolution is capable of measuring the translocation of proteins from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, like NF-κB translocation upon treatment with TNF-α. The enhancement in image resolution and maintenance of quantitative information from the image deconvolution leads to greater statistical significance in the analysis of nuclear translocation.