Identification of astrocytes and neurons during live cell imaging. A) Calcium Green (CAG), the Ca++ reporter dye, is taken up by both astrocytes (a) and neuronal cells (n). B) SR101 astrocyte-specific vital dye staining. C) Same field as both A and B; demonstration of ex vivo glial and neuronal identification. (Adapted from Hermann et al., J Neurosci, 2009, 29 [29]: 9292–9300).(For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)