scholarly journals Anatomical Structures, Cell Types, and Biomarkers Tables Plus 3D Reference Organs in Support of a Human Reference Atlas

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katy Borner ◽  
Sarah A. Teichmann ◽  
Ellen M. Quardokus ◽  
James Gee ◽  
Kristen Browne ◽  
...  

This paper reviews efforts across 16 international consortia to construct human anatomical structures, cell types, and biomarkers (ASCT+B) tables and three-dimensional reference organs in support of a Human Reference Atlas. We detail the ontological descriptions and spatial three-dimensional anatomical representations together with user interfaces that support the registration and exploration of human tissue data. Four use cases are presented to demonstrate the utility of ASCT+B tables for advancing biomedical research and improving health.

Author(s):  
Waykin Nopanitaya ◽  
Joe W. Grisham ◽  
Johnny L. Carson

An interesting feature of the goldfish liver is the morphology of the hepatic plate, which is always formed by a two-cell layer of hepatocytes. Hepatic plates of the goldfish liver contain an infrequently seen second type of cell, in the centers of plates between two hepatocytes. A TEH study by Yamamoto (1) demonstrated ultrastructural differences between hepatocytes and centrally located cells in hepatic plates; the latter were classified as ductule cells of the biliary system. None of the previous studies clearly showed a three-dimensional organization of the two cell types described. In the present investigation we utilize SEM to elucidate the arrangement of hepatocytes and bile ductular cells in intralobular plates of goldfish liver.Livers from young goldfish (Carassius auratus), about 6-10 cm, fed commercial fish food were used for this study. Hepatic samples were fixed in 4% buffered paraformaldehyde, cut into pieces, fractured, osmicated, CPD, mounted Au-Pd coated, and viewed by SEM at 17-20 kV. Our observations were confined to the ultrastructure of biliary passages within intralobular plates, ductule cells, and hepatocytes.


Author(s):  
T. L. Hayes

Biomedical applications of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) have increased in number quite rapidly over the last several years. Studies have been made of cells, whole mount tissue, sectioned tissue, particles, human chromosomes, microorganisms, dental enamel and skeletal material. Many of the advantages of using this instrument for such investigations come from its ability to produce images that are high in information content. Information about the chemical make-up of the specimen, its electrical properties and its three dimensional architecture all may be represented in such images. Since the biological system is distinctive in its chemistry and often spatially scaled to the resolving power of the SEM, these images are particularly useful in biomedical research.In any form of microscopy there are two parameters that together determine the usefulness of the image. One parameter is the size of the volume being studied or resolving power of the instrument and the other is the amount of information about this volume that is displayed in the image. Both parameters are important in describing the performance of a microscope. The light microscope image, for example, is rich in information content (chemical, spatial, living specimen, etc.) but is very limited in resolving power.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 246-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Termini ◽  
Enrique Boccardo

In vitro culture of primary or established cell lines is one of the leading techniques in many areas of basic biological research. The use of pure or highly enriched cultures of specific cell types obtained from different tissues and genetics backgrounds has greatly contributed to our current understanding of normal and pathological cellular processes. Cells in culture are easily propagated generating an almost endless source of material for experimentation. Besides, they can be manipulated to achieve gene silencing, gene overexpression and genome editing turning possible the dissection of specific gene functions and signaling pathways. However, monolayer and suspension cultures of cells do not reproduce the cell type diversity, cell-cell contacts, cell-matrix interactions and differentiation pathways typical of the three-dimensional environment of tissues and organs from where they were originated. Therefore, different experimental animal models have been developed and applied to address these and other complex issues in vivo. However, these systems are costly and time consuming. Most importantly the use of animals in scientific research poses moral and ethical concerns facing a steadily increasing opposition from different sectors of the society. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the development of alternative in vitro experimental models that accurately reproduce the events observed in vivo to reduce the use of animals. Organotypic cultures combine the flexibility of traditional culture systems with the possibility of culturing different cell types in a 3D environment that reproduces both the structure and the physiology of the parental organ. Here we present a summarized description of the use of epithelial organotypic for the study of skin physiology, human papillomavirus biology and associated tumorigenesis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 1203
Author(s):  
Lu Qian ◽  
Julia TCW

A high-throughput drug screen identifies potentially promising therapeutics for clinical trials. However, limitations that persist in current disease modeling with limited physiological relevancy of human patients skew drug responses, hamper translation of clinical efficacy, and contribute to high clinical attritions. The emergence of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology revolutionizes the paradigm of drug discovery. In particular, iPSC-based three-dimensional (3D) tissue engineering that appears as a promising vehicle of in vitro disease modeling provides more sophisticated tissue architectures and micro-environmental cues than a traditional two-dimensional (2D) culture. Here we discuss 3D based organoids/spheroids that construct the advanced modeling with evolved structural complexity, which propels drug discovery by exhibiting more human specific and diverse pathologies that are not perceived in 2D or animal models. We will then focus on various central nerve system (CNS) disease modeling using human iPSCs, leading to uncovering disease pathogenesis that guides the development of therapeutic strategies. Finally, we will address new opportunities of iPSC-assisted drug discovery with multi-disciplinary approaches from bioengineering to Omics technology. Despite technological challenges, iPSC-derived cytoarchitectures through interactions of diverse cell types mimic patients’ CNS and serve as a platform for therapeutic development and personalized precision medicine.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Tomas Zelenka ◽  
Charalampos Spilianakis

The functional implications of the three-dimensional genome organization are becoming increasingly recognized. The Hi-C and HiChIP research approaches belong among the most popular choices for probing long-range chromatin interactions. A few methodical protocols have been published so far, yet their reproducibility and efficiency may vary. Most importantly, the high frequency of the dangling ends may dramatically affect the number of usable reads mapped to valid interaction pairs. Additionally, more obstacles arise from the chromatin compactness of certain investigated cell types, such as primary T cells, which due to their small and compact nuclei, impede limitations for their use in various genomic approaches. Here we systematically optimized all the major steps of the HiChIP protocol in T cells. As a result, we reduced the number of dangling ends to nearly zero and increased the proportion of long-range interaction pairs. Moreover, using three different mouse genotypes and multiple biological replicates, we demonstrated the high reproducibility of the optimized protocol. Although our primary goal was to optimize HiChIP, we also successfully applied the optimized steps to Hi-C, given their significant protocol overlap. Overall, we describe the rationale behind every optimization step, followed by a detailed protocol for both HiChIP and Hi-C experiments.


2003 ◽  
Vol 89 (5) ◽  
pp. 2854-2867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua C. Brumberg ◽  
Farid Hamzei-Sichani ◽  
Rafael Yuste

Layer VI is the origin of the massive feedback connection from the cortex to the thalamus, yet its complement of cell types and their connections is poorly understood. The physiological and morphological properties of corticofugal neurons of layer VI of mouse primary visual cortex were investigated in slices loaded with the Ca2+indicator fura-2AM. To identify corticofugal neurons, electrical stimulation of the white matter (WM) was done in conjunction with calcium imaging to detect neurons that responded with changes in intracellular Ca2+ concentrations in response to the stimulation. Subsequent whole cell recordings confirmed that they discharged antidromic action potentials after WM stimulation. Antidromically activated neurons were more excitable and had different spiking properties than neighboring nonantidromic neurons, although both groups had similar input resistances. Furthermore, antidromic neurons possessed narrower action potentials and smaller afterhyperpolarizations. Additionally, three-dimensional reconstructions indicated that antidromically activated neurons had a distinct morphology with longer apical dendrites and fewer nonprimary dendrites than nonantidromic cells. To identify the antidromic neurons, rhodamine microspheres were injected into the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus and allowed to retrogradely transport back to the somata of the layer VI cortico-geniculate neurons. Physiological and anatomical analysis indicated that most antidromic neurons were likely to be cortico-geniculate neurons. Our results show that cortico-thalamic neurons represent a specific functional and morphological class of layer VI neurons.


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (60) ◽  
pp. 998-1010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae Ho Lee ◽  
Hye-Sun Yu ◽  
Gil-Su Lee ◽  
Aeri Ji ◽  
Jung Keun Hyun ◽  
...  

Three-dimensional gel matrices provide specialized microenvironments that mimic native tissues and enable stem cells to grow and differentiate into specific cell types. Here, we show that collagen three-dimensional gel matrices prepared in combination with adhesive proteins, such as fibronectin (FN) and laminin (LN), provide significant cues to the differentiation into neuronal lineage of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) derived from rat bone marrow. When cultured within either a three-dimensional collagen gel alone or one containing either FN or LN, and free of nerve growth factor (NGF), the MSCs showed the development of numerous neurite outgrowths. These were, however, not readily observed in two-dimensional culture without the use of NGF. Immunofluorescence staining, western blot and fluorescence-activated cell sorting analyses demonstrated that a large population of cells was positive for NeuN and glial fibrillary acidic protein, which are specific to neuronal cells, when cultured in the three-dimensional collagen gel. The dependence of the neuronal differentiation of MSCs on the adhesive proteins containing three-dimensional gel matrices is considered to be closely related to focal adhesion kinase (FAK) activation through integrin receptor binding, as revealed by an experiment showing no neuronal outgrowth in the FAK-knockdown cells and stimulation of integrin β1 gene. The results provided herein suggest the potential role of three-dimensional collagen-based gel matrices combined with adhesive proteins in the neuronal differentiation of MSCs, even without the use of chemical differentiation factors. Furthermore, these findings suggest that three-dimensional gel matrices might be useful as nerve-regenerative scaffolds.


Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 361 (6409) ◽  
pp. 1341-1345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen E. M. Furlong ◽  
Michael Levine

Developmental enhancers mediate on/off patterns of gene expression in specific cell types at particular stages during metazoan embryogenesis. They typically integrate multiple signals and regulatory determinants to achieve precise spatiotemporal expression. Such enhancers can map quite far—one megabase or more—from the genes they regulate. How remote enhancers relay regulatory information to their target promoters is one of the central mysteries of genome organization and function. A variety of contrasting mechanisms have been proposed over the years, including enhancer tracking, linking, looping, and mobilization to transcription factories. We argue that extreme versions of these mechanisms cannot account for the transcriptional dynamics and precision seen in living cells, tissues, and embryos. We describe emerging evidence for dynamic three-dimensional hubs that combine different elements of the classical models.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document