Selected Video sequences to illustrate the small size and the amazing autonomy of microplasts.

Note:

They are in avi-format and zipped. They were cropped and edited in order to keep the file size manageable, to remove out-of-focus parts, and to eliminate time-lapse jitter. As a result, the time intervals between individual frames is variable. The sequences are best played by the microsoft media player.

1. Ruffling microplasts.

2 examples of ruffling microplasts prepared from human skin fibroblasts

Download #1 (1.1 MB)

Download #2 (0.2 MB)

2. Blebbing microplasts.

2 examples of blebbing microplasts prepared from human skin fibroblasts and 3T3 cells. Blebs are hemispherical surface protrusions of animal cells that appear to be generated by the pressure of cytoplasmic liquid against the plasma membrane. The blebbing microplasts do not change volume over time, suggesting that microplasts, and thus the cytoplasm of cells contain a liquid pumping system that may a function analogous to the circulatory function of multicellular organisms.

Download #1 (0.4 MB)

Download #2 (0.8 MB)

3. Contact retraction of a microplasts.

A ruffling microplast (taken from a human fibroblast) is contacted by the filopodia of an adjacent human fibroblast. In response, it contracts into a sea urchin-like shape, apparently expressing contact retraction. In contrast, the approaching cell does not react to it by retraction, as it would if it would contact another cell.

Download (1.4 MB)

4. Morphological change of a neuronal microplast.

A microplast generated from a neuroblastoma cell appears to change its shape into a segment of a neurite with a growth cone at its left end.

Download (1.0 MB)

TABLE OF CONTENTS