Imaging glucose uptake inside single cells

Stimulated Raman scattering is used together with a novel, small-alkyne-tagged glucose analogue to visualize glucose uptake activity at the single-cell level.

Almost all living organisms—from bacteria to humans—require glucose as an energy source, i.e., cells constantly take up glucose to satisfy organisms’ energetic needs for survival, maintenance, and proliferation. However, in many diseases (such as obesity, diabetes, and cancer), glucose uptake activity becomes poorly regulated. Visualization of this important process, in both physiological and pathological conditions, is thus highly desired, and is indispensable for understanding energy metabolism and cellular activity. Over the past few decades several prominent techniques have been developed for the visualization of glucose uptake. Read more.