Nirenberg S, Cepko C
Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.
J Neurosci. 1993 Aug;13(8):3238-51. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.13-08-03238.1993.
The study of both the function and development of complex neural systems would be greatly facilitated by a means for systematically blocking intercell communication. One way of preventing cells from signaling each other is to remove them from the system by ablation. Here we present a general technique for visualizing and ablating selected cell classes in vivo. The cells of interest are genetically engineered so that they can be selectively labeled with a photoactivatable dye and visualized in living preparations; the dye-labeled cells can then be photoablated. This approach is applicable to a broad range of cell types, in organisms amenable to gene transfer, and permits ablations to be performed at different developmental stages or in the adult. We demonstrate the use of this technique on several cell types in the mouse retina and cerebral cortex, and in the zebrafish embryo.
系统地阻断细胞间通讯的方法将极大地促进对复杂神经系统功能和发育的研究。阻止细胞相互信号传导的一种方法是通过切除将它们从系统中去除。在此，我们提出一种在体内可视化和切除选定细胞类别的通用技术。将感兴趣的细胞进行基因工程改造，使其能够用可光激活的染料进行选择性标记，并在活体标本中可视化；然后可以对染料标记的细胞进行光消融。这种方法适用于适合基因转移的生物体中的多种细胞类型，并允许在不同发育阶段或成体中进行消融。我们在小鼠视网膜和大脑皮层以及斑马鱼胚胎中的几种细胞类型上展示了该技术的应用。
