Mirzapour Delavar Hadi, Karamzadeh Arezou, Pahlavanneshan Saghar
Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Department of Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
J Membr Biol. 2016 Jun;249(3):215-20. doi: 10.1007/s00232-016-9883-4. Epub 2016 Feb 26.
Optogenetics is the integration of genetics and optics to achieve gain or loss of function of well-defined events in specific cells of living tissue. As a versatile tool, upon light illumination, it allows fast control of precisely defined events in biological systems from single cell to different parts of whole tissue in freely moving animals. Taking advantage of this method, a multitude of studies have been published to understand brain functions and dysfunctions. Although from the beginning, it has been used to target neurons within the neural networks and to understand how specific neurons contribute to brain function, it gradually has been extended to other fields of biology such as stem cell research and therapy. With a combination of optogenetics and stem cells, new opportunities were opened up in stem cell biology and also its integration in new circuit as a cell-based treatment strategy for more common disorders like neurodegenerative and cardiovascular one. Recently, some studies showed that engineered stem cells expressing exogenous light-activated opsins can be used in stem cell biology including tracking the differentiation of stem cells, functional analysis of embryonic stem cell-derived graft, and testing the functional integration of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons. With the advent of non-invasive approach, such as transcranial excitation or inhibition, optogenetics also holds promise for non-invasive control of engineered stem cell.
光遗传学是遗传学与光学的结合，用于在活组织的特定细胞中实现明确事件的功能获得或丧失。作为一种多功能工具，在光照下，它能够快速控制生物系统中从单细胞到自由活动动物整个组织不同部位的精确定义事件。利用这种方法，已经发表了大量研究来理解大脑功能和功能障碍。尽管从一开始，它就被用于针对神经网络中的神经元，以了解特定神经元如何对大脑功能做出贡献，但它逐渐扩展到了生物学的其他领域，如干细胞研究和治疗。光遗传学与干细胞相结合，为干细胞生物学带来了新机遇，也为其作为针对神经退行性和心血管等更常见疾病的基于细胞的治疗策略整合到新回路中创造了机会。最近，一些研究表明，表达外源光激活视蛋白的工程干细胞可用于干细胞生物学，包括追踪干细胞的分化、分析胚胎干细胞衍生移植物的功能以及测试诱导多能干细胞衍生神经元的功能整合。随着非侵入性方法（如经颅激发或抑制）的出现，光遗传学也有望对工程干细胞进行非侵入性控制。
