Britton Chance Center for Biomedical Photonics, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics-Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China.
MoE Key Laboratory for Biomedical Photonics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering Sciences, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China.
Sci Rep. 2017 Oct 24;7(1):13891. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-14360-6.
A neural circuit is a structural-functional unit of achieving particular information transmission and processing, and have various inputs, outputs and molecular phenotypes. Systematic acquisition and comparative analysis of the molecular features of neural circuits are crucial to elucidating the operating mechanisms of brain function. However, no efficient, systematic approach is available for describing the molecular phenotypes of specific neural circuits at the whole brain scale. In this study, we developed a rapid whole-brain optical tomography method and devised an efficient approach to map brain-wide structural and molecular information in the same brain: rapidly imaging and sectioning the whole brain as well as automatically collecting all slices; conveniently selecting slices of interest through quick data browsing and then performing post hoc immunostaining of selected slices. Using this platform, we mapped the brain-wide distribution of inputs to motor, sensory and visual cortices and determined their molecular phenotypes in several subcortical regions. Our platform significantly enhances the efficiency of molecular phenotyping of neural circuits and provides access to automation and industrialization of cell type analyses for specific circuits.
神经回路是实现特定信息传递和处理的结构功能单位，具有各种输入、输出和分子表型。系统地获取和比较分析神经回路的分子特征对于阐明大脑功能的运作机制至关重要。然而，目前还没有有效的、系统的方法可以在全脑尺度上描述特定神经回路的分子表型。在这项研究中，我们开发了一种快速全脑光学层析成像方法，并设计了一种高效的方法来绘制全脑范围内的结构和分子信息：快速成像和切片整个大脑，以及自动收集所有切片；通过快速数据浏览方便地选择感兴趣的切片，然后对选定的切片进行事后免疫染色。使用这个平台，我们绘制了输入到运动、感觉和视觉皮层的全脑分布，并确定了它们在几个皮质下区域的分子表型。我们的平台显著提高了神经回路分子表型分析的效率，并为特定回路的细胞类型分析提供了自动化和工业化的途径。
