THE99: Kinesisk pusselbit

I senaste numret (44 /2017) av kinesiska tidskriften Progress in Biochemistry and Biophysics

2017年第44卷第7期目录

har 7 forskare från 2 olika forskningsinstitut publicerat sina senaste rön inom hjärnrelaterade sjukdomar.

5 av forskarna är från Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences som finns upptaget på PHI,s sida över Users.

Studien heter Accumulation of Simulated Pathological Level of Formaldehyde Decreases Cell Viability and Adhesive Morphology in Neuronal Cells.

Abstract
Age-related cognitive impairment, for instance Alzheimer’s disease (AD), is a chronic, progressive, neurodegeneration disease.
The concentration of endogenous formaldehyde (FA) positively correlates with the severity of cognitive impairments in AD patients.
However, the FA concentrations used in the previous studies were usually higher than the physiological and pathological levels in aging people. To elucidate the relationship between FA and the pathogenesis of AD, it is necessary to investigate the effect of long-term exposure of neurons to low concentration of FA, which is consistent with the pathological FA concentration.
In this study, we established a cell culture method to simulate the chronic low-concentration FA exposure by using a serial passage strategy.
Murine neuroblastoma N2a cells and primary murine hippocampal neurons were exposed to a simulated pathological FA concentration referred to AD patients. During the long-term of culture, FA gradually accumulated in the medium and impaired N2a cells.
High performance liquid chromatography, cell viability assay and lactate dehydrogenase assay showed that, the FA-elimination capacity of N2a cell decreases with the incubation time, accompanied with inhibition of cell growth and increase in cell death.
Holographic microscopy showed that long-term simulated pathological FA exposure attenuated the cells’ adhesive morphology.
Cells exposed to FA became thicker, exhibiting impairment of neuronal processes.
The number of primary neurites in primary hippocampal neurons were reduced by FA exposure, suggesting a decrease in the connectivity between neurons. Formaldehyde accumulation promoted Tau phosphorylation at its Thr181 and Ser396 epitopes, which may be one of the factors leading to decrease in primary neurites.
Our findings indicate that accumulation of simulated pathological concentration of FA impairs neurons, induces Tau hyperphosphrylation and decreases neural connectivity, which would lead to neural dysfunction and eventually contribute to the pathogenesis of age-related cognitive impairment.

Materials and methods

Digital holographic microscopy

Cell morphology was measured by using digital Holographic microscopy.

Aliquots were taken for the measurements on morphological parameters by a

Holographic imaging system (Phase Holographic ImagingAB,Sweden).

For Holographic time-lapse microscopy,the HoloMonitor M3 digital holographic microscope captured 3D information from N2a cells.

Holograms were digitally captured every 30min.

The holograms were analysed by using the Hstudio M3 software (Phase Holographic Imaging AB, Sweden). Sid 4 i länken ovanför.

Studien i sig har förmodligen hög relevans, men vi pusselläggare blickar i detta fall mer åt Institutet de 5 forskarna arbetar på.

"The Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was established in 1958 by Prof. BEI Shizhang, a renowned biologist and distinguished CAS member. The mission of the institute is to carry out basic frontier research in a multi/interdisciplinary manner to achieve strategic breakthroughs in such areas as protein sciences, brain and cognitive sciences, infection and immunity, non-coding RNA, and protein and peptide drugs, among others. The institute also emphasizes applied and translational research related to biomedicine and diagnostic methods, including the development of state-of-the-art instruments, key technologies and experimental methods for bioresearch.

The institute currently has 80 laboratories in various areas. These include the National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, the State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, the CAS Key Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, and the CAS Key Laboratory of Noncoding RNA. The institute itself has also established two institute-level key laboratories for research on protein and peptide drugs, as well as one devoted to interdisciplinary science."

Institutet är pigga på att använda ny teknik likväl som att bjuda in föreläsare med unik erfarenhet och/eller kompetens,att lära ifrån som att utgå ifrån i deras egen forskning.

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