Neural-Glial Signaling Deciphered by Hyper-Cluster Analysis

大脑组织中只有一小部分细胞是神经元。大多数脑细胞是神经胶质细胞。星形星形细胞是胶质细胞的一个亚群，形成一个被称为合胞体的完整网络。星形胶质细胞合胞体支持钙释放波，释放星形胶质细胞和神经元之间的信号信息。该项目的目标是分析脑组织培养物中的这些信号模式，以破译它们的信息，并了解它们在健康和癫痫脑细胞中的不同之处。该项目将由Viatech成像/Cognetix的生物学家和俄亥俄大学的物理学家共同努力。Viatech成像/Cognetix将提供荧光视频显微镜来观察钙波，并将提供必要的专业知识来生长、修改和了解培养的脑细胞的生理。俄亥俄大学的物理学家将分析和模拟钙波的动力学特性，为理解细胞区域之间的相干信号和通信提供基础。在这项研究中将使用和进一步发展的中心分析工具称为超聚类分析。这项技术揭示了细胞间消息传递的独特统计指纹。从辛辛那提儿童医学医院获得的各种健康和癫痫组织中将获得统计指纹。一旦这些指纹能够被破译，一系列令人兴奋的生物医学应用就成为可能。这些措施包括对抗癫痫化合物的有效性进行个性化的定量测试，以及在培养皿中筛选新药的有效性，而不会出现通常伴随临床测试而来的令人衰弱的副作用。

0078055JUNGOnly a fraction of the cells in brain tissue are neurons. The majority of brain cells are glial cells. The star-shaped astrocytes, a subgroup of glial cells form an integrated network known as a syncytium. Astrocyte syncytia support waves of calcium release that signal information between astrocytes and neurons. The goal of this project is to analyze these signaling patterns in cultures of brain tissue to decipher their messages and to understand how they differ in healthy and epileptic brain cells.The project will be a collaborative effort between biologists at Viatech-Imaging/Cognetix and physicists at Ohio University. Viatech-Imaging/Cognetix will provide fluorescent video microscopy to observe the calcium waves, and will provide the expertise necessary to grow, modify, and understand the physiology of the cultured brain cells. Ohio University physicists will analyze and model the dynamical properties of the calcium waves to provide a basis for understanding the coherent signaling and communication between regions of cells. The central analytical tool to be used and further developed in this study is called Hyper-cluster analysis. This technique reveals a unique statistical fingerprint of the intercellular messaging. Statistical fingerprints will be obtained in a variety of healthy and epileptic tissues obtained from Children's Medical Hospital in Cincinnati. Once these fingerprints can be deciphered, a wide range of exciting biomedical applications becomes possible. These include personalized quantitative testing of the effectiveness of anti-epileptic compounds and screening of the effectiveness of new drugs in a culture dish without the debilitating side effects that often accompany clinical testing.