KAIST, Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Cell Signaling and Bioimaging Laboratory, 335 Gwahak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.
J Biomed Opt. 2011 Jul;16(7):075003. doi: 10.1117/1.3600774.
As the most abundant cell type in the central nervous system, astrocyte has been one of main research topics in neuroscience. Although various tools have been developed, at present, there is no tool that allows noninvasive activation of astrocyte in vivo without genetic or pharmacological perturbation. Here we report a noninvasive label-free optical method for physiological astrocyte activation in vivo using a femtosecond pulsed laser. We showed the laser stimulation robustly induced astrocytic calcium activation in vivo and further verified physiological relevance of the calcium increase by demonstrating astrocyte mediated vasodilation in the brain. This novel optical method will facilitate noninvasive physiological study on astrocyte function.
作为中枢神经系统中最丰富的细胞类型，星形胶质细胞一直是神经科学的主要研究课题之一。尽管已经开发出了各种工具，但目前还没有一种工具可以在不进行遗传或药理学干扰的情况下非侵入性地激活体内的星形胶质细胞。在这里，我们报告了一种使用飞秒脉冲激光进行非侵入性无标记光学方法来体内激活星形胶质细胞的方法。我们表明激光刺激在体内强烈诱导了星形胶质细胞的钙激活，并通过证明星形胶质细胞介导的大脑血管舒张进一步验证了钙增加的生理相关性。这种新的光学方法将促进对星形胶质细胞功能的非侵入性生理研究。
