α-Smooth Muscle Actin
This was a short study, expanding on the confocal and image analysis techniques that were developed to study the 3D morphology of tenocyte nuclei. α-SMA is a contractile cytoskeletal protein, normally associated with smooth muscle cells, as in gut wall and vascular beds. It has been known for some time that tenocytes contain α-SMA, however its role in normal tendon biology has not been investigated. This study attempted to develop labelling and confocal techniques to generate 3D images that demonstrated the 3D distribution of α-SMA in tenocytes, in an effort to begin understanding its possible function(s) in tenocytes. The original HTML report can be read here.
Animations can be viewed by clicking on the thumbnails below. Note: Red is propidium iodide bound to nuclear DNA, green is a proprietary dye (Alexa Fluor 488) bound to antibody-labelled cytoskeletal α-SMA.
Animations
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