Cited research Biophys. J. 99, L7–L9 (2010)

Imaging has revealed differences in the molecular organization of cell membranes in a living vertebrate embryo.

Arindam Majumdar at Uppsala University in Sweden, Katharina Gaus at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and their colleagues stained zebrafish embryos with a dye and used multi-photon microscopy to observe the cell membranes in various tissues.

In cells lining the gut (pictured) and kidney tubules, the lipid molecules in the membranes facing the lumen were more ordered than those in the membranes on the opposite face of the cell. This organization is consistent with earlier observations in model membranes and cells in culture. A.K.

Credit: BIOPHYSICAL SOC.