Doney Ellen, Bernatchez Renaud, Clavet-Fournier Valérie, Dudek Katarzyna A, Dion-Albert Laurence, Lavoie-Cardinal Flavie, Menard Caroline
Université Laval, Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, Quebec City, Québec, Canada.
CERVO Brain Research Center, Québec City, Québec, Canada.
Neurophotonics. 2023 Oct;10(4):044410. doi: 10.1117/1.NPh.10.4.044410. Epub 2023 Oct 4.
Brain and gut barriers have been receiving increasing attention in health and diseases including in psychiatry. Recent studies have highlighted changes in the blood-brain barrier and gut barrier structural properties, notably a loss of tight junctions, leading to hyperpermeability, passage of inflammatory mediators, stress vulnerability, and the development of depressive behaviors. To decipher the cellular processes actively contributing to brain and gut barrier function in health and disease, scientists can take advantage of neurophotonic tools and recent advances in super-resolution microscopy techniques to complement traditional imaging approaches like confocal and electron microscopy. Here, we summarize the challenges, pros, and cons of these innovative approaches, hoping that a growing number of scientists will integrate them in their study design exploring barrier-related properties and mechanisms.
脑屏障和肠屏障在包括精神病学在内的健康与疾病领域受到了越来越多的关注。最近的研究强调了血脑屏障和肠屏障结构特性的变化，尤其是紧密连接的丧失，导致通透性增加、炎症介质通过、应激易感性以及抑郁行为的发展。为了解析在健康和疾病状态下积极影响脑屏障和肠屏障功能的细胞过程，科学家们可以利用神经光子学工具以及超分辨率显微镜技术的最新进展，以补充传统成像方法，如共聚焦显微镜和电子显微镜。在此，我们总结了这些创新方法的挑战、优点和缺点，希望越来越多的科学家能将它们纳入其研究设计中，以探索与屏障相关的特性和机制。
