ABSTRACT
The understanding of cell biology has significantly progressed thanks to the development of in vitro and ex vivo technological approaches. However, even the most sophisticated of these approaches fails to faithfully reproduce the complex cellular and molecular environment of physiological and pathophysiological processes that occur in vivo. Hence, the relevance of in vitro or ex vivo observations needs to be constantly evaluated and refined in living organisms. A key experimental approach to perform this “reality check” is intravital microscopy (IVM) because it allows high resolution visualization of cellular behavior, cell fates, and molecular events in living organisms. This chapter aims at researchers or students who are interested in adding IVM to their technological toolbox as a valuable complement to other approaches. It describes the current state of the art, the challenges, limitations, and future perspectives to push the limits of this technique.
