ORIGINAL ARTICLE Resting microglial cells exhibit tubular membrane protrusions Ulrike Gimsa 1 , Veronika Kralj-Iglic 2 , Jan Gimsa 3 , and Ales Iglic 4 Abstract Gimsa, U., Kralj-Iglic, V., Gimsa, J., and Iglic, A. Resting microglial cells exhibit tubular membrane protrusions Songklanakarin J. Sci. Technol., 2002, 24(Suppl.) : 771-776 Nano- and microtubular structures have recently become a subject of increasing interest due to their importance in biology and medicine as well as their technological potential. Such structures have been observed in anorganic (Iijima, 1991) as well as in organic (Schnur 1993; Oda et al. 1991) systems. Micro- and nanotubular protrusions of bilayer membranes have been found in cells (Kralj-Iglic et al. 1998; Kralj-Iglic et al. 2001a) and phospholipid vesicles (Kralj-Iglic et al. 2002; Kralj-Iglic et al. 2001b). In this work we describe membrane protrusions in microglial cells. Key words : microglia, shape, tubular structure, bilayer couple model 1 Ph.D, University of Rostock, Department of Neurology, Gehlsheimerstr. 20, D-18055 Rostock, Germany, 2 Ph.D., D.Sc, Institute of Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, Lipiceva 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Laboratory of Applied Physics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Trzaska 25, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia, 3 Ph.D., D.Sc., Prof., University of Rostock, Department of Biology – Chair of Biophysics, Gertrudenstr. 11A, D-18057 Rostock, Germany, 4 Ph.D., D.Sc., Prof., Laboratory of Applied Physics, Faculty of Electrical Engi- neering, Trzaska 25, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Corresponding e-mail : ulrike.gimsa@med.uni-rostock.de Received, 16 January 2003 Accepted, 18 April 2003 < < < < < < < < < < < <