扩增显微技术正在改变细胞成像的经济性与分辨率。该方法由麻省理工学院研究人员于 2015 年提出，通过将样本嵌入由丙烯酸钠制成的水凝胶中，使其在吸水后体积显著膨胀。该材料可吸收自身重量数百倍的水，却能保持整体结构，从而在不依赖昂贵高倍率光学系统的情况下，将原本难以分辨的亚细胞细节“拉大”供观察。

在操作中，特定蛋白质等生物分子被锚定在凝胶网络上，随着加水膨胀，锚点间距同步放大，使细微结构在空间上分离。这一过程显著改善了染料和抗体的渗透效率，尤其适用于细胞壁坚硬、传统染色难以进入的样本。一位研究人员曾花费六年时间尝试通过复杂的冷冻-解冻流程实现染色，成功率极低；改用扩增显微后，样本几乎全部成功显现结构。

该技术的统计意义在于其可复制性与可扩展性。实验表明，只需基础型荧光显微镜即可获得更清晰的图像，显著降低设备门槛。多个实验室在不同研究对象上复现了效果，并开始系统性描绘此前难以观测的细胞骨架多样性。由于成本低、学习曲线短、设备普及率高，扩增显微被视为真正实现“显微技术民主化”的方法，预计将在全球细胞生物学实验室中快速普及。

Expansion microscopy is transforming the economics and resolution of cellular imaging. Developed in 2015 by researchers at MIT, the technique embeds samples in a sodium acrylate hydrogel that swells dramatically when water is added. The material can absorb hundreds of times its own weight in water while preserving overall structure, effectively enlarging nanoscale features without relying on expensive high-magnification optical systems.

In practice, specific biomolecules such as proteins are anchored to the gel network, and as water is added, the spacing between anchor points expands proportionally, separating fine structures in space. This markedly improves dye and antibody penetration, particularly for cells with rigid walls that resist conventional staining. One researcher spent six years attempting complex freeze-thaw methods with low success; after switching to expansion microscopy, nearly all samples revealed internal structures clearly.

The broader significance lies in reproducibility and scalability. Experiments show that even a basic fluorescence microscope can yield clearer images, sharply lowering equipment barriers. Multiple labs have replicated the results across different organisms and begun mapping cytoskeletal diversity previously unseen at this level of detail. With low cost, short learning curves, and widespread access to suitable microscopes, expansion microscopy is widely viewed as a practical democratization of advanced cellular imaging, likely to spread rapidly across cell biology laboratories worldwide.