Cool Images: A Halloween-Inspired Cell Collection

As Halloween approaches, we turned up some spectral images from our gallery. The collection below highlights some spooky-sounding—but really important—biological topics that researchers are actively investigating to spur advances in medicine. Cell Skeleton The cell skeleton, or cytoskeleton, is the framework that gives a cell its shape, helps it move and keeps its contents organized for proper function. A cell that lacks a cytoskeleton becomes misshapen and immobile. This fibroblast, a cell that normally makes connective tissues and travels to the site of a wound to help it heal, is lacking a cytoskeleton. Researchers have associated faulty cytoskeletons and resulting abnormal cell movement with birth defects and weakened immune system functioning. See a fibroblast with a healthy skeleton. Guts and Bugs Our guts house tiny microbes, many of which help us stay healthy through the chemical signals they release. By some estimates, gut bacteria outnumber our own cells by 10 to 1. Many microbes residing in our intestines influence our metabolism, our immune system and even our behavior. To study complex microbe-host interactions, researchers use model organisms, such as mice. This image shows a bacterium called Bacteroides fragilis (stained red in the center) living in a channel among colon cells of a mouse (shown as green, leaflike structures containing elliptical cell nuclei shown in light blue). Because changes in the numbers and composition of gut bacteria can cont...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Cell Biology Genetics Bacteria Cells Cellular Processes Cool Images Source Type: blogs