The TNF superfamily member TWEAK has emerged as a pleiotropic cytokine that regulates many cellular functions that include immune/inflammatory activity, angiogenesis, cell proliferation, and fate. TWEAK through its inducible receptor, FGF-inducible molecule 14 (Fn14), can i ...

Current antiangiogenic therapies have led to the observation that such agents can lead to improved tumor vessel structure and function termed “vascular normalization” which reduces tumor burden. However, vessel normalization is a transient process, and patients often develop re ...

Angiogenesis, the sprouting of new capillaries from existing blood vessels, accompanies clinical and experimental stroke and is focused particularly in the salvageable ischemic border zone. As this endogenous angiogenic response correlates positively with clinical prog ...

Blood vessels provide the brain with the oxygen and the nutrients it requires to develop and function. Endothelial cells (ECs) are the principal cell type forming the vascular system and driving its development and remodeling. All vessels are lined by a single EC layer. Larger blood vessels are ad ...

Optical near-fields can be employed for a wide range of applications, e.g., light localization, light scattering, and field enhancement. In this chapter the principles of near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) will be outlined. The basic idea of this technique is the extension of the b ...

Super-resolution fluorescence microscopy techniques have paved the way to address cell biological questions with unprecedented spatial resolution. Of these, three-dimensional structured illumination microscopy (3D-SIM) reaches a nearly eightfold increased volum ...

The resolution of far-field fluorescence microscopy is limited by the Abbe diffraction limit. Making use of the moir� effect, structured illumination microscopy circumvents this limit by projecting fine patterns of light into the sample. From several diffraction limited raw images ...

We review single-molecule localization microscopy techniques with a focus on computational techniques and algorithms necessary for their use. The most common approach to single-molecule localization, Gaussian fitting at positions pre-estimated from local maxima, is illus ...

In a method termed photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM), super-resolution fluorescence imaging can be achieved through the localization of single molecules. This allows the resolution of specific proteins fused to the appropriate fluorescent protein label. Here, we ...

In the emerging field of super-resolution microscopy, the branch of live-cell imaging is still in its infancy. Regardless of its importance for addressing relevant biological questions, live super-resolution imaging has to face several obstacles when compared to conventional ima ...

This chapter presents the foundations of Sted microscopy with a comparison to its generalization Resolft microscopy and to stochastic imaging methods (Palm, Storm, Fpalm, and alike). The first section reviews the advantages of optical microscopy, explains the diffraction limit, and ...

Diffraction sets a physical limit for the theoretically achievable resolution; however, it is possible to circumvent this barrier. That’s what microscopists have been doing in recent years and in many ways at once, starting the era of super-resolution in light microscopy. High-resoluti ...

Galileo Galilei invented the first microscope “occhiolino,” by combining a concave and a convex lens in 1600s. Robert Hooke and Anton van Leeuwenhoek later modified it to look at living things. Since then, light microscopy has gained immense popularity and has been pushing the limits of optical ...

In recent years, microscopy techniques have reached high sensitivities and excellent resolutions, far beyond the diffraction limit. However, images of biological specimens obtained with super-resolution instruments have the tendency of being dominated by spots. The quality or ...

The preparation of samples and the choice of appropriate labeling techniques have become instrumental for the development of light microscopy techniques with increasingly high resolution. Both localization microscopy and STED approaches require fluorophores with speci ...

Eighty years after its development, electron microscopy still represents the gold standard in terms of resolution. A major disadvantage is, however, the requirement for fixed specimens—especially in view of the numerous live fluorescence microscopy methods that have been develo ...

In theoretical investigations, we review several nonlinear optical approaches towards subdiffraction-limited resolution in label-free imaging via coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS). Using a density matrix model and numerical integration, we investigate va ...

X-ray microscopy and tomography can provide the three-dimensional density distribution within cells and tissues without staining and slicing. In addition, chemical information—i.e. the elemental distribution—can be retrieved by X-ray spectro-microscopy based on contrast ...

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful technique for analyzing the structure, properties, and interactions of living cells down to molecular resolution. Rather than using an incident beam as in optical and electron microscopies, AFM measures the tiny forces acting between a sharp tip ...

The cerebral vascular system services the constant demand for energy during neuronal activity in the brain. Attempts to delineate the logic of neurovascular coupling have been greatly aided by the advent of two-photon laser scanning microscopy to concurrently image blood flow and the ac ...