CELL BIOLOGY, TRACE-ELEMENTS AND NUCLEAR MICROSCOPY

Essential trace elements often function as co-factors in enzymes, the most conspicuous being zinc for which more than 200 dependent enzymes have been found. Selenium is a trace element for which only a few enzymes have been discovered. Quit recent findings of the importance of zinc-finger proteins in the transcription process in cells have attracted great interest. A protective effect against damage to base-pairs during this process is intriguing. Another exciting discovery is that the tumour-suppressor protein p53 also contains zinc. The development of the nuclear microscope has made possible intracellular studies of trace-element distributions. This paper discusses the progress of recent years concerning nuclear microscopy in cell biology. Progress in our laboratory concerning intracellular distributions of trace elements and the comparison with measurements on fractionated organelles will be presented.