I am trying to distinguish the pillar cells from thin and thick epithelial cells of Chinese mitten crab so that I can study using pH dyes regulatory capabilities of the individual cell types. Cells can not be fixed as I am doing live cell imaging and I should avoid other live cell dyes which may hamper cell viability. Attached is a picture of an intact gill lamella.
Hello Alex,
I guess, the best way to visibly discriminate the two types of cells is to look for their morphology keeping in mind their purpose in the first place. Epithelial cells, with the role of osmoregulation through gas/ion exchange should appear different to the pillar cells whose role is to provided rigidity to the gill lamellae, hence are bound to be thicker walled and relatively opaque under light microscopes. Morphometric evaluation is the only option in the absence of clarification through fixatives or distinction by using stains.
Regards,
Dr. Abhishek Mukherjee
@all Distinguishing pillar cells from epithelial cells in live crab gill lamella can be a challenging task, but there are a few methods that might be helpful:
It may be helpful to try a combination of these methods to determine the best approach for distinguishing pillar cells from epithelial cells in your specific experimental setup.
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