Ultra-Microscope Sees Through Spinal Cord

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Scientists from the Technical University in Vienna and the Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology in Munich have developed a new microscopy technique to analyze in detail nerve cells in the spinal cord. Nerve cells from the spinal cord are able to regenerate after being damaged. How this happens has not been easy to investigate: to see into the inner structure of spinal cord tissue it was necessary until now to cut samples into thin slices to be investigated separately.

At the faculty for electrical engineering and information technology at the TU Vienna a microscopy method has been developed that makes tissue samples transparent. Details of the spinal cord's inner structure - within thousandths of millimetres - are made visible. In cooperation with the Max-Planck-Institute for Neurobiology this new microscopy technique has been published in Nature Medicine.

Original publication:
Ali Ertürk, Christoph P. Mauch, Farida Hellal, Friedrich Förstner, Tara Keck, Klaus Becker, Nina Jährling, Heinz Steffens, Melanie Richter, Mark Hübener, Edgar Kramer, Frank Kirchhoff, Hans Ulrich Dodt & Frank Bradke: Three-dimensional imaging of the unsectioned adult spinal cord to assess axon regeneration and glial responses after injury. Nature Medicine (2011), doi:10.1038/nm.2600, Published online 25 December 2011

http://www.tuwien.ac.at

Keywords: Hans Ulrich Dodt Imaging microscopy technique Neuro Sciences Neuroimaging Spinal Cord Ultra-Microscope

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