ABSTRACT
Mapping receptor-binding sites on cellular surfaces is a challenging task in molecular cell biology. The first TREC studies on cells were conducted on microvascular endothelial cells from mouse myocardium to locally identify vascular endothelial-cadherin binding sites and correlate their position with membrane topographical features. The TREC technique was applied to cells, and this chapter provides an overview of the most recent TREC applications for cellular systems. In contrast to “normal” magnetic alternating current mode imaging, TREC uses the lower part of the oscillation to drive a feedback loop for obtaining the topography image, whereas the upper part of the oscillation is used for the generation of the recognition image. Moreover, using half-amplitude feedback allows accurate determination of the surface topography. The topography and recognition images can be simultaneously and independently obtained using a specially designed electronic circuit, which splits the cantilever oscillation amplitude into the lower and upper parts and contains specific information about topography and recognition, respectively.
