Change in Cell Volume is an important factor involved
in many biological processes.
Cell Growth
Cell Cycles
Cell Death
Compensation
for Osmotic Stress
Pathogenesis
Phagocytosis
The Multisizer™ 3 is capable of detecting dynamic and static cell size
and volume changes.
Both cell growth (cell volume increase) and progression
through cell division cycle are required for sustained cell proliferation.
Proliferating cells in culture tend to double in volume before each
division, but it is not known how growth and division rates are coordinated
to ensure that cell size is maintained. Measuring cell volume changes
is an important tool for understanding and controlling growth and
cycles in cells.
The maintenance of an adequate cell number requires
a delicate balance between cell proliferation and cell death. This
balance allows the optimal adaptation to changing functional needs.
Cell death may be accomplished by at least two distinct mechanisms,
necrosis and apoptosis. Necrosis is a pathophysiological mechanism
involving cell swelling, disruption of the cell membrane with release
of intracellular content. Apoptosis is a programmed death mechanism.
Among the characteristics of apoptosis is cell shrinkage. Both, defective
and excessive apoptosis, may lead to serious disease.
Cells, by their very nature, are in constant danger of losing their life. The cell is a semiporous bag of dissolved chemicals floating in an environment of dissolved chemicals--a situation that makes them vulnerable to the effects of osmosis. Any imbalance in the number of dissolved particles between the cell’s interior and exterior can cause water either to rush in and swell the cell, or to seep out, causing the cell to shrink. When cells and microorganisms are subjected to changing conditions, they attempt to compensate by adjusting themselves to the new environment.
The use of a Digital Pulse Processor generates pulse
data that allows measuring changes in cells in real time, even if
it takes place over a few seconds. This technology is not only limited
to the analyses of cells, but can also be utilized for other types
of particles. An example being the monitoring of critical processes
like toner manufacturing, due to the fact that toners have a tendency
to agglomerate; using a conventional size distribution does not detect
any abnormality. The Digital Pulse Processor (DPP) digitizes the information
generated during the analysis, keeping all the parameters from the
pulses. The pulse distribution graph makes it possible to detect any
changes that could take place during sample analysis; this feature
is only available on the Multisizer 3.
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