Coll. have evidenced dispersed and clustered pools of SM at the

Coll. have evidenced dispersed and clustered pools of SM at the apical PM of pig kidney epithelial cells labeled by two SMspecific toxins (Fig. 4c) [114]. Single Dye Tracing (SDT) allows to analyze diffusion properties of a single labeled molecule. Upon insertion of fluorescent analogs of saturated and MG-132 web unsaturated phospholipids in human airway smooth muscle cells, SDT has revealed submicrometric clusters of saturated lipids (Fig. 4d), which diffuse more rapidly but in a unidirectional way. The study also showed that submicrometric domains maintain their position, suggesting the influence of the underlining cytoskeleton on lipid partitioning [21], as proposed by other studies. Nevertheless, it should be noticed that, despite the recent wealth of information gained, these techniques have the inherent disadvantages that they require the use of exogenous probes and that they are so far difficult to apply to living cells due to phototoxicity and photobleaching. Excited fluorophores produce reactive oxygen species which react with a large variety of easily oxidizable components, such as proteins, nucleic acids, lipids and fluorophores, leading to loss of fluorescence signal (photobleaching) and cell cycle arrest or cell death (phototoxicity). An additional major difficulty for application of super-resolution microscopy on live cells is the mobility of the labelled molecule, which leads to substantial blur during the overall recording time. 3.2.3. Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy–Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) allows direct imaging of membrane structures at a very high resolution (50-100nm) by combining mass spectrometry molecule identification with imaging. Thanks to this technique, Kraft and coll. have discovered SL-enriched submicrometric domains at the fibroblast PM after metabolic labeling with 15N-SL precursors (Fig. 4e) [25, 151]. This technique presents the main advantage of studying directly endogenous lipids by metabolic labeling with isotopes, which drastically decreases the risk of distribution artifact that can be encountered with fluorescent lipid probes or antibodies. 3.2.4. Scanning probe microscopy–Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a highresolution scanning probe microscopy, detecting differences in Pemafibrate web roughness at the nanometer scale. Among others, this technique has revealed submicrometric domains on (i) the RBC membrane upon cholesterol depletion (Fig. 4f) [36]; (ii) the external membrane leaflet of kidney brush-border membrane models [152]; and (iii) membrane purified by ultracentrifugation from human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) [153]. AFM has becomeProg Lipid Res. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2017 April 01.Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptCarquin et al.Pageextremely advanced by a multiparametric analysis of samples by combining super-resolution imaging, topography, molecular interactions and mechanical measurement [154]. A related method is Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscopy (NSOM) with a resolution that can reach 20nm [155]. NSOM has revealed clustering of GM1 and GM3 in domains of 40-360nm at the apical PM of epithelial cells [156]. 3.3. Cell models The complexity of the PM led scientists to work on model lipid bilayers with controlled and simple composition. These models include supported bilayers and large vesicles such as GUVs or GPMVs (reviewed in [157]; see also Section 2.1). Even if these models have greatly helped to understand the properties of lipid b.Coll. have evidenced dispersed and clustered pools of SM at the apical PM of pig kidney epithelial cells labeled by two SMspecific toxins (Fig. 4c) [114]. Single Dye Tracing (SDT) allows to analyze diffusion properties of a single labeled molecule. Upon insertion of fluorescent analogs of saturated and unsaturated phospholipids in human airway smooth muscle cells, SDT has revealed submicrometric clusters of saturated lipids (Fig. 4d), which diffuse more rapidly but in a unidirectional way. The study also showed that submicrometric domains maintain their position, suggesting the influence of the underlining cytoskeleton on lipid partitioning [21], as proposed by other studies. Nevertheless, it should be noticed that, despite the recent wealth of information gained, these techniques have the inherent disadvantages that they require the use of exogenous probes and that they are so far difficult to apply to living cells due to phototoxicity and photobleaching. Excited fluorophores produce reactive oxygen species which react with a large variety of easily oxidizable components, such as proteins, nucleic acids, lipids and fluorophores, leading to loss of fluorescence signal (photobleaching) and cell cycle arrest or cell death (phototoxicity). An additional major difficulty for application of super-resolution microscopy on live cells is the mobility of the labelled molecule, which leads to substantial blur during the overall recording time. 3.2.3. Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy–Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) allows direct imaging of membrane structures at a very high resolution (50-100nm) by combining mass spectrometry molecule identification with imaging. Thanks to this technique, Kraft and coll. have discovered SL-enriched submicrometric domains at the fibroblast PM after metabolic labeling with 15N-SL precursors (Fig. 4e) [25, 151]. This technique presents the main advantage of studying directly endogenous lipids by metabolic labeling with isotopes, which drastically decreases the risk of distribution artifact that can be encountered with fluorescent lipid probes or antibodies. 3.2.4. Scanning probe microscopy–Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a highresolution scanning probe microscopy, detecting differences in roughness at the nanometer scale. Among others, this technique has revealed submicrometric domains on (i) the RBC membrane upon cholesterol depletion (Fig. 4f) [36]; (ii) the external membrane leaflet of kidney brush-border membrane models [152]; and (iii) membrane purified by ultracentrifugation from human breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) [153]. AFM has becomeProg Lipid Res. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2017 April 01.Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptCarquin et al.Pageextremely advanced by a multiparametric analysis of samples by combining super-resolution imaging, topography, molecular interactions and mechanical measurement [154]. A related method is Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscopy (NSOM) with a resolution that can reach 20nm [155]. NSOM has revealed clustering of GM1 and GM3 in domains of 40-360nm at the apical PM of epithelial cells [156]. 3.3. Cell models The complexity of the PM led scientists to work on model lipid bilayers with controlled and simple composition. These models include supported bilayers and large vesicles such as GUVs or GPMVs (reviewed in [157]; see also Section 2.1). Even if these models have greatly helped to understand the properties of lipid b.