Editorial
The Neurons, the Brain: Flow Cytometry for Black Holes Attila Tarnok1,2*
THE best known victim of lateral sclerosis is Stephen Hawking, an English theoretical physicist, a father and, recently, the “denier” of black holes. His unusually long survival with Amyothrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) shows many generations how devastating this disease is for those who are affected. Several genes are associated with the occurrence of ALS as outlined by Coatti and colleagues (this issue, page 197). Up to date, the progressive loss of motor neurons, the major cause of the disease, can neither be stopped by medication nor can it be cured. Physical exercise can alleviate the symptoms and improve life expectancy and quality of life for ALS patients. The recent ALS ice bucket challenge has brought a worldwide media attention to the disease and helped raise substantial funds for ALS research. Animal models represent valuable tools to understand the development of the disease and test different approaches as to how neurodegeneration can be slowed down or possibly cured. However, stem cells such as embryonic stem cells (ESC), adult stem cells (1,2) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) (3) carry great promise to serve both as models for the disease and also as a potential cure. Neuronal stem cells derived from autologous SCs, iPS or even from aortic pericytes (4) may in future regenerate and repair the lost neurons in ALS patients. And here cytometry comes in play as the way of bringing light into this black hole by improving the quality of SCs, detecting their maturation pathways and isolating therapeutically relevant populations. This is reported in great detail in the review by Coatti and colleagues (this issue, page 197).
Another black hole of cell fate is the immune surveillance of the brain and other parts of the central nervous system, like the spinal cord by white blood cells. Present view is that the high selectivity of the blood-brain barrier and the blood-cerebrospinal-fluid barrier can only be exclusively passed by cells after they actively attach themselves to specific adhesion receptors and active migration. Now Kleine (this issue, page 227) presents an alternative way that will certainly provoke controversy and it is therefore highlighted as an Editor’s Choice. This work expands an earlier viewpoint of the author (5) and supports in a highly detailed analysis using multicolor flow cytometry, the thesis that passive transport also exists. The author supports his data with an extensive overview of the present literature. We are looking forward to the perception and discussion of these provoking results.
LITERATURE CITED 1. Sousa BR, Parreira RC, Fonseca EA, Amaya MJ, Tonelli FM, Lacerda SM, Lalwani P, Santos AK, Gomes KN, Ulrich H, Kihara AH, Resende RR. Human adult stem cells from diverse origins: an overview from multiparametric immunophenotyping to clinical applications. Cytometry A 2014;85A(1):43–77. 2. Zimmerlin L, Donnenberg VS, Rubin JP, Donnenberg AD. Mesenchymal markers on human adipose stem/progenitor cells. Cytometry A 2013;83A(1):134–140. 3. Wakao S, Kitada M, Dezawa M. The elite and stochastic model for iPS cell generation: multilineage-differentiating stress enduring (Muse) cells are readily reprogrammable into iPS cells. Cytometry A 2013;83A(1):18–26. 4. Montiel-Eulefi E, Nery AA, Rodrigues LC, Sanchez R, Romero F, Ulrich H. Neural differentiation of rat aorta pericyte cells. Cytometry A 2012;81A(1):65–71. 5. Kleine TO, Benes L. Immune surveillance of the human central nervous system (CNS): different migration pathways of immune cells through the blood-brain barrier and blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier in healthy persons. Cytometry A 2006; 69A(3):147–151.
1
Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Heart Centre Leipzig
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com)
2
Translational Centre for Regenerative Medicine (TRM), University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
DOI: 10.1002/cyto.a.22646
Received 22 January 2015; Accepted 2 February 2015 This work was made possible by funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, AT: PtJ-Bio, 1315883). *Correspondence to: Prof. Attila T arnok, Dept. Pediatric Cardiology, Heart Centre Leipzig, University of Leipzig, Str€ umpellstr. 39, 04289 Leipzig, Germany. E-Mail: [email protected]
Cytometry Part A 87A: 189, 2015
C 2015 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry V
The Neurons, the Brain: Flow Cytometry for Black Holes Attila Tarnok1,2*
THE best known victim of lateral sclerosis is Stephen Hawking, an English theoretical physicist, a father and, recently, the “denier” of black holes. His unusually long survival with Amyothrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) shows many generations how devastating this disease is for those who are affected. Several genes are associated with the occurrence of ALS as outlined by Coatti and colleagues (this issue, page 197). Up to date, the progressive loss of motor neurons, the major cause of the disease, can neither be stopped by medication nor can it be cured. Physical exercise can alleviate the symptoms and improve life expectancy and quality of life for ALS patients. The recent ALS ice bucket challenge has brought a worldwide media attention to the disease and helped raise substantial funds for ALS research. Animal models represent valuable tools to understand the development of the disease and test different approaches as to how neurodegeneration can be slowed down or possibly cured. However, stem cells such as embryonic stem cells (ESC), adult stem cells (1,2) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) (3) carry great promise to serve both as models for the disease and also as a potential cure. Neuronal stem cells derived from autologous SCs, iPS or even from aortic pericytes (4) may in future regenerate and repair the lost neurons in ALS patients. And here cytometry comes in play as the way of bringing light into this black hole by improving the quality of SCs, detecting their maturation pathways and isolating therapeutically relevant populations. This is reported in great detail in the review by Coatti and colleagues (this issue, page 197).
Another black hole of cell fate is the immune surveillance of the brain and other parts of the central nervous system, like the spinal cord by white blood cells. Present view is that the high selectivity of the blood-brain barrier and the blood-cerebrospinal-fluid barrier can only be exclusively passed by cells after they actively attach themselves to specific adhesion receptors and active migration. Now Kleine (this issue, page 227) presents an alternative way that will certainly provoke controversy and it is therefore highlighted as an Editor’s Choice. This work expands an earlier viewpoint of the author (5) and supports in a highly detailed analysis using multicolor flow cytometry, the thesis that passive transport also exists. The author supports his data with an extensive overview of the present literature. We are looking forward to the perception and discussion of these provoking results.
LITERATURE CITED 1. Sousa BR, Parreira RC, Fonseca EA, Amaya MJ, Tonelli FM, Lacerda SM, Lalwani P, Santos AK, Gomes KN, Ulrich H, Kihara AH, Resende RR. Human adult stem cells from diverse origins: an overview from multiparametric immunophenotyping to clinical applications. Cytometry A 2014;85A(1):43–77. 2. Zimmerlin L, Donnenberg VS, Rubin JP, Donnenberg AD. Mesenchymal markers on human adipose stem/progenitor cells. Cytometry A 2013;83A(1):134–140. 3. Wakao S, Kitada M, Dezawa M. The elite and stochastic model for iPS cell generation: multilineage-differentiating stress enduring (Muse) cells are readily reprogrammable into iPS cells. Cytometry A 2013;83A(1):18–26. 4. Montiel-Eulefi E, Nery AA, Rodrigues LC, Sanchez R, Romero F, Ulrich H. Neural differentiation of rat aorta pericyte cells. Cytometry A 2012;81A(1):65–71. 5. Kleine TO, Benes L. Immune surveillance of the human central nervous system (CNS): different migration pathways of immune cells through the blood-brain barrier and blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier in healthy persons. Cytometry A 2006; 69A(3):147–151.
1
Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Heart Centre Leipzig
Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com)
2
Translational Centre for Regenerative Medicine (TRM), University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
DOI: 10.1002/cyto.a.22646
Received 22 January 2015; Accepted 2 February 2015 This work was made possible by funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, AT: PtJ-Bio, 1315883). *Correspondence to: Prof. Attila T arnok, Dept. Pediatric Cardiology, Heart Centre Leipzig, University of Leipzig, Str€ umpellstr. 39, 04289 Leipzig, Germany. E-Mail: [email protected]
Cytometry Part A 87A: 189, 2015
C 2015 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry V
