The neuronal differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells offers a new strategy for the treatment of neurological disorders.Thus,there is a need to identify a noninvasive and sensitive in vivo imaging approach for real-t...The neuronal differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells offers a new strategy for the treatment of neurological disorders.Thus,there is a need to identify a noninvasive and sensitive in vivo imaging approach for real-time monitoring of transplanted stem cells.Our previous study confirmed that magnetic resonance imaging,with a focus on the ferritin heavy chain 1 reporter gene,could track the proliferation and differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells that had been transduced with lentivirus carrying the ferritin heavy chain 1 reporter gene.However,we could not determine whether or when bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells had undergone neuronal differentiation based on changes in the magnetic resonance imaging signal.To solve this problem,we identified a neuron-specific enolase that can be differentially expressed before and after neuronal differentiation in stem cells.In this study,we successfully constructed a lentivirus carrying the neuron-specific enolase promoter and expressing the ferritin heavy chain 1 reporter gene;we used this lentivirus to transduce bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.Cellular and animal studies showed that the neuron-specific enolase promoter effectively drove the expression of ferritin heavy chain 1 after neuronal differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells;this led to intracellular accumulation of iron and corresponding changes in the magnetic resonance imaging signal.In summary,we established an innovative magnetic resonance imaging approach focused on the induction of reporter gene expression by a neuron-specific promoter.This imaging method can be used to noninvasively and sensitively detect neuronal differentiation in stem cells,which may be useful in stem cell-based therapies.展开更多
In order to understand the development of stem cells into specialized mature cells it is necessary to study the growth of cells in culture. For this purpose it is very useful to have an efficient computerized cell tra...In order to understand the development of stem cells into specialized mature cells it is necessary to study the growth of cells in culture. For this purpose it is very useful to have an efficient computerized cell tracking system. In this paper a prototype system for tracking neural stem cells in a sequence of images is described. In order to get reliable tracking results it is important to have good and robust segmentation of the cells. To achieve this we have implemented three levels of segmentation. The primary level, applied to all frames, is based on fuzzy threshold and watershed segmentation of a fuzzy gray weighted distance transformed image. The second level, applied to difficult frames where the first algorithm seems to have failed, is based on a fast geometric active contour model based on the level set algorithm. Finally, the automatic segmentation result on the crucial first frame can be interactively inspected and corrected. Visual inspection and correction can also be applied to other frames but this is generally not needed. For the tracking all cells are classified into inactive, active, dividing and clustered cells. Different algorithms are used to deal with the different cell categories. A special backtracking step is used to automatically correct for some common errors that appear in the initial forward tracking process.展开更多
Alzheimer’s disease cannot be cured as of yet.Our current understanding on the causes of Alzheimer’s disease is limited.To develop treatments,experimental models that represent a particular cellular phase of the dis...Alzheimer’s disease cannot be cured as of yet.Our current understanding on the causes of Alzheimer’s disease is limited.To develop treatments,experimental models that represent a particular cellular phase of the disease and more rigorous scrutiny of the cellular pathological mechanisms are crucial.In recent years,Alzheimer’s disease research underwent a paradigm shift.According to this tendency,Alzheimer’s disease is increasingly being conceived of a disease where not only neurons but also multiple cell types synchronously partake to manifest the pathology.Knowledge on every cell type adds an alternative approach and hope for the efforts towards the treatment.Neural stem cells and their neurogenic ability are making an appearance as a new aspect of the disease manifestation based on the recent findings that neurogenesis reduces dramatically in Alzheimer’s disease patients compared to healthy individuals.Therefore,understanding how neural stem cells can form new neurons in Alzheimer’s disease brains holds an immense potential for clinics.However,this provocative idea requires further evidence and tools for investigation.Recently,single cell sequencing appeared as a revolutionary tool to understand cellular programs in unprecedented resolution and it will undoubtedly facilitate comprehensive investigation of different cell types in Alzheimer’s disease.In this mini-review,we will touch upon recent studies that use single cell sequencing for investigating cellular response in Alzheimer’s disease and some consideration pertaining to the utilization of neural regeneration for Alzheimer’s disease research.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China,No.81771892(to JHC).
文摘The neuronal differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells offers a new strategy for the treatment of neurological disorders.Thus,there is a need to identify a noninvasive and sensitive in vivo imaging approach for real-time monitoring of transplanted stem cells.Our previous study confirmed that magnetic resonance imaging,with a focus on the ferritin heavy chain 1 reporter gene,could track the proliferation and differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells that had been transduced with lentivirus carrying the ferritin heavy chain 1 reporter gene.However,we could not determine whether or when bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells had undergone neuronal differentiation based on changes in the magnetic resonance imaging signal.To solve this problem,we identified a neuron-specific enolase that can be differentially expressed before and after neuronal differentiation in stem cells.In this study,we successfully constructed a lentivirus carrying the neuron-specific enolase promoter and expressing the ferritin heavy chain 1 reporter gene;we used this lentivirus to transduce bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.Cellular and animal studies showed that the neuron-specific enolase promoter effectively drove the expression of ferritin heavy chain 1 after neuronal differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells;this led to intracellular accumulation of iron and corresponding changes in the magnetic resonance imaging signal.In summary,we established an innovative magnetic resonance imaging approach focused on the induction of reporter gene expression by a neuron-specific promoter.This imaging method can be used to noninvasively and sensitively detect neuronal differentiation in stem cells,which may be useful in stem cell-based therapies.
文摘In order to understand the development of stem cells into specialized mature cells it is necessary to study the growth of cells in culture. For this purpose it is very useful to have an efficient computerized cell tracking system. In this paper a prototype system for tracking neural stem cells in a sequence of images is described. In order to get reliable tracking results it is important to have good and robust segmentation of the cells. To achieve this we have implemented three levels of segmentation. The primary level, applied to all frames, is based on fuzzy threshold and watershed segmentation of a fuzzy gray weighted distance transformed image. The second level, applied to difficult frames where the first algorithm seems to have failed, is based on a fast geometric active contour model based on the level set algorithm. Finally, the automatic segmentation result on the crucial first frame can be interactively inspected and corrected. Visual inspection and correction can also be applied to other frames but this is generally not needed. For the tracking all cells are classified into inactive, active, dividing and clustered cells. Different algorithms are used to deal with the different cell categories. A special backtracking step is used to automatically correct for some common errors that appear in the initial forward tracking process.
基金supported by Helmholtz Association(Helmholtz Young Investigator Award)Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft(DFG)+1 种基金German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases(DZNE)TU Dresden(all to CK)
文摘Alzheimer’s disease cannot be cured as of yet.Our current understanding on the causes of Alzheimer’s disease is limited.To develop treatments,experimental models that represent a particular cellular phase of the disease and more rigorous scrutiny of the cellular pathological mechanisms are crucial.In recent years,Alzheimer’s disease research underwent a paradigm shift.According to this tendency,Alzheimer’s disease is increasingly being conceived of a disease where not only neurons but also multiple cell types synchronously partake to manifest the pathology.Knowledge on every cell type adds an alternative approach and hope for the efforts towards the treatment.Neural stem cells and their neurogenic ability are making an appearance as a new aspect of the disease manifestation based on the recent findings that neurogenesis reduces dramatically in Alzheimer’s disease patients compared to healthy individuals.Therefore,understanding how neural stem cells can form new neurons in Alzheimer’s disease brains holds an immense potential for clinics.However,this provocative idea requires further evidence and tools for investigation.Recently,single cell sequencing appeared as a revolutionary tool to understand cellular programs in unprecedented resolution and it will undoubtedly facilitate comprehensive investigation of different cell types in Alzheimer’s disease.In this mini-review,we will touch upon recent studies that use single cell sequencing for investigating cellular response in Alzheimer’s disease and some consideration pertaining to the utilization of neural regeneration for Alzheimer’s disease research.
