ReviewNature protocols2020
Tutorial: guidance for quantitative confocal microscopy.
Review in Nature protocols, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 183 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
183 citing papers in PubMed, 384 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cell swelling and upright mounting-based imaging for high-resolution visualization of intracellular trafficking across the BBB using conventional confocal microscopy.Drug delivery · 2026Article
- Mechanistic questions in aqueous-organic chemistry.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2026Review
- Canonical Ru(ii) tris-polypyridyl complexes as confocal-compatible stains for lignified secondary-wall domains inRSC advances · 2026Article
- Membrane-Traversing Peptides: Mechanistic Landscapes, Assays, and Applications.Chemical reviews · 2026Review
- Structured illumination microscopy for high SNR 3D imaging from millimeter-thick tissues to cellular dynamics.Innovation (Cambridge (Mass.)) · 2026Article
- Illuminating the Interface: In Situ Optical Insights Into Two-Electron ORR Pathways for HAdvanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Review
- High Numerical Aperture Metalens for the Deep Ultraviolet.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- Quantifying interleaflet coupling of phase behavior and observing anti-registered phases in asymmetric lipid bilayers.Biophysical journal · 2026Article
- Advances in Wearable Bioimaging.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Review
- Blocking interaction of sclerostin loop3 with osteoblastic LRP4 counteracts bone loss without increasing arterial stiffness during mechanical unloading.Journal of orthopaedic translation · 2026Article
- Foveated light-field compound imager.Science advances · 2026Article
- Micro-cold-forming: a simple, rapid, and inexpensive method for the fabrication of microcavities for 3D cell culture.RSC advances · 2026Article
- Technological advances in imaging and modelling of leaf structural traits: a review of heat stress in wheat.Journal of experimental botany · 2026Review
- Multimodal techniques based on synchrotron radiation X-rays for revealing interactions of metallic nanoparticles with biological matrices.Fundamental research · 2026Review
- Training module and assessment strategy for light microscopy skills training in a research environment.Journal of microbiology & biology education · 2026Article
- Cytocompatibility of PMMA and Titanium Boston Keratoprosthesis Backplates with Human Corneal Fibroblasts.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Osteoblastic sclerostin loop3-LRP4 interaction required by sclerostin to inhibit bone formation.Bone research · 2026Article
- Generalizable, high-throughput image analysis of subcellular structures using dispersion indices.iScience · 2026Article
- Characterisation of the signal to noise ratio of 2-photon microscopes.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Foveated Light-Field Compound Imager.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
123 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
When used appropriately, a confocal fluorescence microscope is an excellent tool for making quantitative measurements in cells and tissues. The confocal microscope's ability to block out-of-focus light and thereby perform optical sectioning through a specimen allows the researcher to quantify fluorescence with very high spatial precision. However, generating meaningful data using confocal microscopy requires careful planning and a thorough understanding of the technique. In this tutorial, the researcher is guided through all aspects of acquiring quantitative confocal microscopy images, including optimizing sample preparation for fixed and live cells, choosing the most suitable microscope for a given application and configuring the microscope parameters. Suggestions are offered for planning unbiased and rigorous confocal microscope experiments. Common pitfalls such as photobleaching and cross-talk are addressed, as well as several troubling instrumentation problems that may prevent the acquisition of quantitative data. Finally, guidelines for analyzing and presenting confocal images in a way that maintains the quantitative nature of the data are presented, and statistical analysis is discussed. A visual summary of this tutorial is available as a poster (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-020-0307-7).
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.