Light Microscopy as a Tool to Detect Apoptosis and Other Cellular Changes and Damage

Light microscopy is a powerful tool that can detect and measure cellular and subcellular structural changes over time. This can be done quickly with transmitted light microscopy without perturbing the cells with stains or probes. For instance, cells undergoing apoptosis often shrink in size and have characteristic blebs in the plasma membrane. Many fluorescent probes/reporters are also used for different phases of apoptosis, such as tagged caspase 3. This paper will showcase the practical applications of several imaging modalities (transmitted light and fluorescence) for detecting apoptosis in endpoint and time-lapse images/sequences.