The past decade has seen an explosion in use of the (14)C bomb-pulse to do fundamental cell biology. Studies in the 1960's used decay counting to measure tissue turnover when the atmospheric (14)C/C concentration was changing rapidly. Today bulk tissue measurements are of marginal interest since most of the carbon in the tissue resides in proteins, lipids and carbohydrates that turn over rapidly. Specific cell types with specialized functions are the focus of cell turnover investigations. Tissue samples need to be fresh or frozen. Fixed or preserved samples contain petroleum-derived carbon that has not been successfully removed. Cell or nuclear surface markers are used to sort specific cell types, typically by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Specific biomolecules need to be isolated with high purity and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurements must accommodate samples that generally contain less than 40 micrograms of carbon. Furthermore, all separations must not add carbon to the sample. Independent means such as UV absorbance must be used to confirm molecule purity. Approaches for separating specific proteins and DNA and combating contamination of undesired molecules are described.

中文翻译：

---

炸弹脉冲生物学。

在过去的十年里，(14)C 炸弹脉冲在基础细胞生物学中的使用呈爆炸式增长。1960 年代的研究使用衰减计数来测量大气 (14)C/C 浓度快速变化时的组织更新。今天，大块组织测量的兴趣不大，因为组织中的大部分碳都存在于快速转换的蛋白质、脂质和碳水化合物中。具有特殊功能的特定细胞类型是细胞更新研究的重点。组织样本需要新鲜或冷冻。固定或保存的样品含有尚未成功去除的石油衍生碳。细胞或核表面标记用于分选特定细胞类型，通常通过荧光激活细胞分选 (FACS)。特定的生物分子需要以高纯度分离，加速器质谱 (AMS) 测量必须适应通常含有少于 40 微克碳的样品。此外，所有分离都不得向样品中添加碳。必须使用独立的方法，如紫外线吸光度来确认分子纯度。描述了用于分离特定蛋白质和 DNA 以及防止不需要的分子污染的方法。