Figure 1.

Laser capture microdissection of living and fixed cells. For all of the experiments, a region of interest (ROI) was i) drawn around the chosen cells, ii) cut with the laser, and iii) isolated from the rest of the cells. A) Living cells were a) cut after delineation of the ROI with the laser immediately (0 h) and isolated 3 h later from the rest of the cells or b) cut 3 h after delineation of the ROI. As can be seen, numerous cell movements occur over time (i-dashed arrows) and the laser produced visible morphological alterations in the cells (black arrowheads). B) GLU/PFA fixed cells were iii) cut immediately after delineation of the ROI and isolated subsequently (3 h). Fixation maintained small structures such as cellular protrusions (black arrows) and no morphological changes were observed i) before or iii) after the isolation of the cells.