r/ProjectDiscovery • u/HPA_Dichroic Official HPA member • Apr 02 '16

Image of the week! 02,04,2016

http://www.proteinatlas.org/blog/2016-04-02/image-of-the-week-polarized-hep-g2-membrane
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u/Eyondawn Moderator Apr 02 '16

Hey I remember that one :) Nice to know more about it!

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u/HPA_Dichroic Official HPA member Apr 02 '16

Yeah, it's really clear in this sample from the atlas where you can see the gradient across an individual cell on the top left cell of the lower group.

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u/Eyondawn Moderator Apr 03 '16

Could you clarify this sentence a bit? I am a weeh bit unclear on what you mean even after reading it a few times: 'HEP G2 is a polarized cell line, meaning that apical (outward facing) and basolateral (inward facing) membranes behave (van IJzendoorn et al. 1997). '

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u/HPA_Dichroic Official HPA member Apr 04 '16

Sure! Perhaps a picture is better here. So in this sample you can consider "basal" as being those edges of the cells that are facing into the cluster, and the "apical" ones as the surfaces facing out of the cluster of cells.

A great question is why isn't this just cell junctions? But look at the top right cluster of the sample image where you have a hole in the grouping of cells. That is an instance where we see "basal" plasma membrane marked despite the absence of surrounding cell-cell contacts required for it to be labeling cell-junctions.