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Test tubes without walls
S. NILSSON
The Lund researchers used the new system to examine lipolysis (breakdown of lipids) in adipocytes (fat cells). The Several analytical techniques for monitoring chemical events addition of isoprenaline, a -adrenergic agonist, was shown and intracellular processes at the single-cell level are now avail- to stimulate lipolysis, leading to the release of fatty acids and able. Such analyses are quite popular in the area of drug disa decrease in pH. Changes in pH could be easily followed covery because of their ability to detect small cellular changes by adding a pH-dependent fluorophore to the droplet and induced by pharmaceuticals. A big problem associated with continually monitoring changes in fluorescence with a CCD these small-scale analyses (volumes
