Intravital imaging of cell signaling in mice

Abstract

Cell signaling is mostly studied in in vitro 2D-cell culturemodels that lack the complex in vivo environment providedby neighboring cells, soluble secreted factors and non-cellularmatrix components. Given that many environmental factorscontrol cell signaling, it comes as no surprise that in vitroobservations often poorly correlate with in vivo observations.Recent developments in intravital imaging techniques havemade it possible to visualize and study cell signaling inindividual cells within living animals. Here, we review intravitalimaging techniques based on fluorescence microscopy andgive examples of how these techniques are being used tostudy cell signaling.