3D Fruit Fly Images to Benefit Brain Research

Samples were taken along rivers around Tokyo. Measurements of rare earth element quantities indicate a clearly elevated amount of gadolinium compared to that in natural shale. Graphics courtesy of Tokyo Metropolitan University

Experimental Protocol and Representative MRI of Brains at Various Key Points in That Protocol. (A) Experimental timeline. (B) Representative T2WI (using an 11.7T MRI) of the brain of a postnatal day (PND) 11 pup, 1 day after inducing left HII and prior to hNSC transplantation. Note the beginning of an increasingly intense “water signal” (white) on the left (“HII lesion”). (C) Representative T2WI (using an 11.7T MRI) 3 days post-HII, shortly after implantation of SPIO pre-labeled hNSCs into the contralateral cerebral ventricle (“Lateral Vent”). Note the “HII lesion” on the left becoming hyperintense (white) and the black signal void of the SPIO-labeled hNSCs in the lateral ventricle (black arrow). Red arrows denote the needle track. In contrast to what occurs in the intact brain (Figure S4), in a brain subjected to left HII, the implanted SPIO-labeled hNSCs (black signal void) (black arrow) migrate from the right (“R”) to the left (“L”) hemisphere to enter the lesion. (D and E) Shown here (using a 4.7T MRI) are SPIO-labeled hNSCs (black signal void) (black arrow) at 1 month post-implantation into the contralateral ventricle (D) and, in the same representative animal, at 3 months post-implantation (E)–stably integrated and surrounding a much-reduced residual lesion, with no interval enlargement of the graft or ventricles.