Fluorescence Spectra, Polarization, and Lifetimes of Biological Compounds in Living Cells and Model Systems

摘要

The purpose of this experimentation is to extract molecular information about the interaction between a variety of chemical substances of biologic interest with intact living cells studied at the microscope level if possible. The goal of the work is to seek the nature of in vivo complexing of compounds whose mechanism of binding is not fully understood and thus to clarify the effect of agents known to have biologic action, therapeutic or toxic. By special instrumentation three parameters of fluorescence (spectrum, decay time, and polarization) are obtained from the complexes formed in the cells. The analysis of the three parameters can produce data detecting electronic energy transfer mechanisms, states of molecular orientation, molecular volume of complexes, certain degrees of local freedom (Brownian rotation characteristics) and the presence or absence of macromolecule formation. (Author)