D Visualization Of Nerve Intracellular Calcium Distribution

Intracellular Ca2+ serves as a ubiquitous second messenger in nerve cells. Fluctuations of [Ca2+] termed "calcium signals" regulate a variety of intracellular events such as excitability, neurotransmitter release, synaptic plasticity, gene expression, development and differentiation. So it is necessary to examine calcium activity and distribution in nerve cells.A way of visualizing intracellular Ca2+ in three dimensional was established by using laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) and computer visualization technique in this paper. Based on this way, which includes cell culturing and dyeing, confocal microscopy optimizing, confocal data preprocessing, 3D visualization of Ca2+ by computer, we investigated the Ca2* distribution in cultured hippocampal neurons under different objectives. The result showed the uneven intracellular Ca2+ distribution.To examine calcium activity, we also extended our research to four dimensional. It is an effective way to evaluate the factors causing intracellular calcium fluctuation.