Imaging of Clathrin Vesicles in Fibroblast Cells

Clathrin-coated vesicles are found in all eukaryotic cells, but are especially enriched in the brain, where they play a major role in the formation of neurotransmitter-containing pre-synaptic vesicles required for synaptic nerve transmission. Clathrin-mediated endocytosis also regulates the number of receptors on a cell. Pathogenic viruses and bacteria can gain entry into their target cell by making use of the host’s clathrin-dependent endocytic machinery, producing molecules on their surface that mimic endogenous ligands to the host’s cell receptors, thereby inducing the host’s intracellular signaling cascades. In the digital videos presented above, normal Gray fox lung fibroblast cells (FoLu line) are expressing enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (EYFP) fused to a clathrin light chain sequence.