THE USE OF CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY IN THE INVESTIGATION OF CELL STRUCTUREAND FUNCTION IN THE HEART, VASCULAR ENDOTHELIUM AND SMOOTH-MUSCLE CELLS

In recent years, fluorescence microscopy imaging has become an importa nt tool for studying cell structure and function. This non invasive te chnique permits characterization, localisation and qualitative quantif ication of free ions, messengers, pH, voltage and a pleiad of other mo lecules constituting living cells. In this paper, we present results u sing various commercially available fluorescent probes as well as some developed in our laboratory and discuss the advantages and limitation s of these probes in confocal microscopy studies of the cardiovascular system.