The finite-difference time-domain method is used to simulate the propagation of focused beams used for stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy as they scatter through layers of biological cells. Depletion beams that facilitate axial and lateral confinement of the fluorescence emission are modeled, and the effective point spread function of the system as a function of focal depth is assessed under one- and two-photon excitation. Results show that the lateral depletion beam retains a well-defined minimum up to the maximum simulation depth of 42 µm. In addition, the relative spatial shift between excitation and de-excitation beam foci is less than 44 nm for all simulated depths. PSF calculations suggest that sub-diffraction imaging is possible beyond the maximum simulated depth, as long as the fluorescence emission is detectable. However, strong attenuation of the fluorescence emission by the axial confinement beam may make this beam unsuitable for sub-diffraction imaging in scattering samples. / text

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Lytic effector function of Natural Killer (NK) cells and CD8+ T cells occurs through discrete and regulated cell biological steps triggered by recognition of diseased cells. Recent studies of the NK cell synapse support the idea that dynamic nanoscale rearrangements in cortical filamentous (F)-actin are a critical cell biological checkpoint for lytic granule access to NK cell membrane. Loss of function mutations in the LYST gene, a well-characterised cause of Chediak- Hegashi syndrome (CHS), result in the formation of giant lysosomal organelles including lytic granules. Here, we report a mismatch between the extent of cortical F-actin remodelling and enlarged lytic granules that limits the functionality of LYST- deficient NK cells in a human model of CHS. Using super-resolution stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy we found that LYST-deficient NK cells had nanoscale rearrangements in the organisation of cortical actin filaments that were indistinguishable from control cells- despite a 2.5-fold increase in the size of polarised granules. Importantly, treatment of LYST-deficient NK cells with actin depolymerising drugs increased the formation of small secretory domains at the synapse and restored their ability to lyse target cells. These data establish that sub-synaptic F-actin is the major factor limiting the release of enlarged lytic granules from CHS NK cells, and reveal a novel target for therapeutic interventions. While the importance of cortical actin filaments in NK cell cytotoxicity have been established, its persistence at the early stages of T cell synapse formation is disputed. We studied the organisation of cortical actin filaments in synapses formed by primary human T cells using STED microscopy and detected intact cortical actin filaments in key T cell effector subsets including memory CD8+ T cells as early as 5-minutes post-activation. Quantitative analysis revealed that activation specific rearrangements in cortical actin filaments at both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell synapses serve to increase the space between filaments. Additionally, comparison of cytolytic T cells with freshly isolated and IL-2 activated primary NK cells revealed that rapid maturation of the cortical actin meshwork is a specific feature of CD8+ T cell lytic synapses. Using chemical inhibition of actin nucleators, we show that increased cortical relaxation is mediated primarily by the activity of actin related proteins (Arp) -2/3. Taken together, these data establish the critical requirement for dynamic rearrangements in cortical actin filaments at lytic synapses but underscore cell-specific differences in its regulation.

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This thesis focuses on super resolution STED optical imaging. STED provides a wealth of new informational content to the acquired images by using stimulated emission to surpass the diffraction limit in optical fluorescence microscopy. To further increase the informational content, a new method to perform multicolor STED imaging by exploiting differences in the photostability and excitation spectra of dyes is presented. In order to extract information from the images, computational algorithms which handle the new type of high resolution informational content are developed. We propose that multicolor super resolution imaging in combination with image analysis can reduce the amount of clinical samples required to perform accurate cancer diagnosis. To date, such diagnosis is based mainly on significant amounts of tissue samples extracted from the suspected tumor site. The sample extraction often requires anesthetics and can lead to complications such as hematoma, infections and even cancer cell ceding along the needle track. We show that by applying multicolor STED and image analysis, the information gained from single cells is greatly increased. We therefore propose that accurate diagnosis can be based on significantly less extracted tissue material, allowing for a more patient friendly sampling. This approach can also be applied when studying blood platelets, where we show how the high informational content can be used to identify platelet specific activational states. Since platelets are involved in many different types of diseases, such analysis could provide means of performing truly minimally invasive diagnostics based on a simple blood test. In addition, our data makes it possible to understand in finer detail the underlying mechanisms rendering cells metastasis competent. We combine the high resolution spatial information provided by STED with information regarding the adhesive forces of cells measured by TFM (Traction Force Microscopy) and the cell stiffness measured by AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy). Such comparisons provide a link between the specific highly resolved protein distributions and different cellular mechanics and functions. This thesis also includes STED imaging and analysis on the spatial organization of neuronal synaptic regulating proteins, implicating the speed with which neuronal signaling can be regulated. / <p>QC 20140207</p>

Mitochondrien sind essentielle Organellen eukaryotischer Zellen. Sie erfüllen eine Vielzahl wichtiger Funktionen in den Zellen: neben ihrer herausragenden Bedeutung für die Energieproduktion haben sie eine zentrale Rolle im Stoffwechsel, der Ionenhomöostase, sowie beim Zelltod. Weiterhin sind Mitochondrien hochdynamische Organellen. Die Erscheinung des mitochondrialen Netzwerks wird durch die Vorgänge der Fusion und Teilung kontinuierlich verändert. Eine morphologische oder funktionale Heterogenität dieser Organellen wurde bereits in verschiedenen Zelltypen und innerhalb einzelner Zellen beobachtet. Über die Bedeutung dieser Beobachtungen gibt es jedoch nur Vermutungen. Es wird angenommen, dass sie die Folgen eines mitochondrialen Anpassungsmechanismus an unterschiedliche metabolische Anforderungen darstellen. Bislang ist wenig darüber bekannt, ob mitochondriale Proteine auch eine heterogene intrazelluläre Verteilung aufweisen. Um Informationen über die Lokalisation mitochondrialer Proteine zu erhalten, wird unter anderem die Fluoreszenzmikroskopie eingesetzt. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurden sowohl Konfokal- als auch beugungsunbegrenzte STED-Mikroskopie in Kombination mit mathematischen Auswertealgorithmen verwendet, um mitochondriale Proteinverteilungen quantitativ innerhalb einzelner Säugerzellen zu analysieren. In dieser Arbeit wurde gezeigt, dass eine Vielzahl mitochondrialer Proteine, welche in verschiedenen mitochondrialen Subkompartimenten lokalisieren und unterschiedliche Funktionen erfüllen, eine heterogene Dichteverteilung in Form eines Gradienten, mit einer höheren Proteindichte in Zellkernnähe, innerhalb einzelner Zellen aufweist. Diese Gradientenverteilung ist zudem bereits direkt nach der Zellteilung in beiden Tochterzellen zu beobachten. Des Weiteren wurde gezeigt, dass die Hyperelongation von Mitochondrien eine Verringerung des Ausmaßes der Gradientenverteilung von Tom20 bewirkt. Außerdem wurde im Rahmen dieser Arbeit gezeigt, dass in Zellen, in denen die Mikrotubuli depolymerisiert vorliegen, das Ausmaß der intrazellulären Tom20-Gradientenverteilung deutlich verringert ist. Diese Beobachtung legt die Vermutung nahe, dass der Vorgang des mitochondrialen Transports einen entscheidenden Einfluss auf die heterogene Verteilung mitochondrialer Proteine hat. Somit wurde durch diese Arbeit das Verständnis der intrazellulären Heterogenität mitochondrialer Proteinverteilungen entscheidend verbessert. Durch die erhaltenen Ergebnisse kann festgestellt werden, dass viele mitochondriale Proteine eine heterogene Verteilung in Form eines intrazellulären Dichtegradienten aufweisen, die durch Vorgänge der mitochondrialen Dynamik (Teilung, Bewegung) kontrolliert wird.

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