EXALTED EXPLANT (left)

Daryan Chitsaz

Confocal microscopy with immunofluorescence

Culturing whole pieces of embryonic neural tissue allows us to study how neurons develop in a controlled environment. Here, a ball of sensory neurons (or ganglia) that reside by the spinal cord was cultured in a plastic dish for several days and then compared with other samples grown under different conditions, using confocal microscopy, a technique that uses a spatial pinhole to increase the resolution and contrast of images. Dozens of cells remain tightly clustered in the center (blue), while numerous non-neuron cells (green) have radiated outward, forming a friendly surface on which sensory axons (red) grow. By culturing neurons in this way, their cell bodies remain in a comfortable life-like environment, allowing them to rapidly grow long axons that are ideal for studying the processes underlying neurodevelopment, such as how axons interact with the cells they grow on.

LIFTING THE VEIL ON NEURAL CONNECTIVITY WITH HOLOGRAPHY (middle)

Céline Larivière-Loiselle, Erik Bélanger, Pierre Marquet

Digital Holographic Microscopy

This image was acquired by researchers at the Université Laval using a technique called polychromatic Digital Holographic Microscopy (DHM). DHM is an innovative imaging system that combines microscopy with digital reconstruction of holograms, allowing scientists to directly and quantitatively analyze living cells, like the neurons shown here. This imaging technique is ideal for studying neuronal cultures from patients at risk of developing major psychiatric illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, with the aim of identifying risk biomarkers for specific diseases.

HUMAN NEURONS THOUGHTFULLY EMBRACED (RIGHT)

Claudia Belliveau

Fluorescence Microscopy

This image shows perineuronal nets (magenta) enwrapping neurons (cyan) in post-mortem human brain, sprinkled with the nuclei of other brain cells (grey) in the hippocampus, a part of the brain that is involved in learning and memory. Perineuronal nets (PNNs) are a condensed form of extracellular matrix - sort of like scaffolding around a cell - that play an important role in stabilizing memories, concretizing cortical connections, and protecting the cell that they encapsulate. PNNs are known as the molecular brakes that close the brain’s critical period of plasticity – contributing greatly to normal brain development. Altered PNN distribution and structure are becoming more and more implicated in psychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Having the ability to visualize the post-mortem human brain at the cellular level serves as an important tool in investigating the relationship between PNNs and various illnesses. This research attempts to better understand PNNs in the context of mental health.

To learn more about this image from the scientist who created it, watch this video.

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