Figure 1.

SEM and SIMS images show the morphology of a NIH 3T3 mouse fibroblast cell and the sphingolipid and cholesterol distribution in its plasma membrane. (A) SEM image of a NIH 3T3 fibroblast. (B) Montage of ¹⁵N-enrichment high-resolution SIMS images shows ¹⁵N-sphingolipid domains (orange and yellow regions) in the plasma membrane. (C) The ¹⁸O-enrichment images that were acquired in parallel show a relatively even ¹⁸O-cholesterol distribution in the plasma membrane. Color scales show the number of times that the ¹⁵N- or ¹⁸O-enrichment is greater than standard abundance. Montages consist of several high-resolution SIMS images that were acquired with 87-nm-lateral resolution. Adapted with permission from research originally published in Frisz et al. (2013a). © The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.