Fluorescing World of Plant Secreting Cells by Victoria Roshchina

Azulene was found both on the cell surface and inside cells, demonstrating blue (excitation 360–380 nm) or green (excitation 420 nm) fluorescence of DNA-containing organelles. Tubocurarine and yohimbine bound to the cellular surface and did not penetrate into the cells. Fluorescent in blue antagonists of neurotransmitters d-tubocurarine, yohimbine and azulene (blockers of cholinoreceptor, adrenoreceptor, and histamine receptor, respectively) decreased the number of the E. By methods of luminescence microscopy, microspectrofluorimetry and laser scanning confocal microscopy using as an example field horsetail Equisetum arvense microspores, the penetration of these compounds into the cell and associate it with individual compartments (estimated as the changes in their autofluorescence) has been analyzed.

Perspectives and difficulties of pharmaceutical analysis with using of autofluorescence were also considered.Possibilities of fluorescent microscopic single-cell analysis on plant microspores as biosensors for study of chemosignaling involving neurotransmitters and mechanisms of action of fluorescent medicinal compounds-antagonists of neurotransmitters were studied on some examples. In more complex, multicomponent samples such as terpenoid-enriched species Achillea millefolium, Artemisia absinthium and Calendula officinalis the interference terpenoids and phenols (brightly fluoresced in glands and secretory hairs) in blue or blue-green emission were observed. In first species secretory cells of laticifers contained alkaloids chelerythine and sanguinarine. Especially informative were the fluorescence spectra of pharmaceutically-valuable Chelidonium majus and Frangula alnus where the emission of alkaloids and anthraquinones, relatively, as drugs prevailed in the natural samples. Examples of similar analysis have been considered by use alkaloid-, anthraquinone- and terpenoid-containing medicinal plant species. The autofluorescence application gives a possibility to study occurrence and location of natural drugs within tissues and cells. In the fluorescence spectra of the objects one could see characteristic maxima that may be used in practice of pharmacy. Autofluorescence of compounds containing in intact and dried cells induced, mainly, by ultra-violet or violet light was well seen in visible region under various types of luminescent microscopes, including laser-scanning confocal microscope. First experiments for identification of intact plant secretory cells filled with products of secondary metabolism known as drugs based on their fluorescence characteristics has been analyzed on some medicinal plants.

Fluorescing World of Plant Secreting Cells by Victoria Roshchina