Rat Colon Tissue Section

The sample of rat colon tissue presented in the digital image above was labeled with Texas Red conjugated to wheat germ agglutinin, a lectin that selectively binds N-acetylglucosamine and sialic acid residues. The specimen was also labeled with Alexa Fluor 488 conjugated to phalloidin and Hoechst 33342, targeting F-actin and nuclear DNA, respectively. Images were recorded in grayscale with a 12-bit digital camera coupled to a Nikon Eclipse 80i microscope equipped with bandpass emission fluorescence filter optical blocks. During the processing stage, individual image channels were pseudocolored with RGB values corresponding to each of the fluorophore emission spectral profiles.