29 May 2007
Micro movies give new insights to cell development
(images available on request from the University press office)
Researchers at the University of Dundee have recorded a major breakthrough in understanding how nerve cells are generated after developing new microscopy techniques which have enabled them to film cells as they split.
The results are the first movies of cells dividing in a stem cell fashion in the nervous system, the point at which new nerve cells are generated. When nerve cells divide into two, they either produce two `daughter’ cells that both become nerve cells, or generate one `daughter’ nerve cell and a `mother’ that can continue to divide again.
Drs Kate Storey and Jason Swedlow together with graduate student Arwen Wilcock, all from the University’s College of Life Sciences, devised a new way of imaging single cells which enabled them to capture the startling images.
The pictures offer new insights into how cells divide and indicate that even the angle at which cells split can have a fundamental impact on their future life.
"Cells dividing in this way to generate new nerve cells is how the nervous system is built up," said Dr Storey, a developmental biologist. "It is important that some cells keep dividing in order to make a large and complex nervous system with a variety of cell types".
"Understanding what directs this kind of stem cell division in the nervous system informs our ability to control such cells which could in the future offer the potential for us to repair or replace damaged cells."
Dr Swedlow said the study marked a `first step’ in the detailed filming of cell behaviour over long periods.
"The major achievement here is the constant monitoring of these cells over days, so that we can catch all of the events and transformations these cells undergo," he said.
"This study is certainly a first step-- we now want to watch more of the events inside these cells, both at the structural and molecular level. We are also planning to use this approach to watch stem cell divisions in other tissues such as the developing gut."
The work was funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Arwen Wilcock’s work on the project was carried out as part of her Wellcome Trust-funded four-year PhD programme.
The work is published this month in the journal Development.
Drs Storey and Swedlow are currently seeking funds to further develop this approach in new directions; investigating how key signalling molecules control cell behaviour and how the mechanics of cell division may influence what type of cells are generated.
NOTES TO EDITORS
To see the film of the process of mitosis as it happens, go to: http://dev.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/134/10/1943/DC1
A link to other films made using the new imaging system: http://dev.biologists.org/content/vol134/issue10/images/data/1943/DC1/DEV002519mov_2.mov
For media enquiries contact:
Roddy Isles
Head, Press Office
University of Dundee
Nethergate
Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384910
E-MAIL: r.isles@dundee.ac.uk
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