China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Liu Fang
On September 2, BGI Life Sciences led the completion of the first spatio-temporal atlas of salamander brain regeneration, which was published in the international academic journal Science in the form of a cover article, which is also the world's first spatio-temporal atlas of brain regeneration.
Based on BGI space-time omics Stereo-seq technology, the research team systematically analyzed and compared the development and regeneration process of salamander brains, found the key neural stem cell subsets in the regeneration process of salamander brains, depicted the process of reconstructing and injuring neurons in such stem cell subsets, and also found that brain regeneration and development processes have certain similarities, providing a boost for cognitive brain structure and development process, and providing a new direction for regenerative medicine research and treatment of the nervous system.
So far, in just half a year, BGI's achievements related to spatiotemporal omics and single-cell technology have been published in the three top journals of Cell, Nature and Science for four consecutive times, achieving a "Grand Slam".
Cover of the journal Science. Courtesy of BGI
The Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander used in this study is a type of salamander, also known as a hexagonal dinosaur, which has a unique, cute appearance and strong regenerative ability. If a human is unfortunate enough to have a limb amputated, the wound will heal slowly, but no new limbs will grow. If an organ is diseased or damaged, it is necessary to rely on organ transplantation for treatment.
Miraculously, the Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander can not only regenerate organs such as limbs, tail, eyes, skin and liver, but also regenerate the brain, which is why scientists are used as important model organisms to study the problem of regeneration.
"In addition to their powerful regenerative abilities, salamanders are more evolutionarily superior to other telesophageal fish and have a higher degree of similarity to mammalian brain structures." At the same time, its gene coding sequence is extremely similar to that of humans, studying the initiation mechanism of salamander brain regeneration, and discovering the key genes in it, or will provide important guidance for the repair of human nervous system damage or degenerative diseases. Dr. Gu Ying, co-corresponding author of the paper and Hangzhou Huada Life Science Research Institute, said.
In the study, the research team composed of BGI and other units first constructed a spatio-temporal map of salamander brain development covering 6 developmental important periods, showing the molecular characteristics and spatial distribution dynamic changes of various types of neurons, and found that the salamander brain began to specialize a subtype of neural stem cells with spatial regional characteristics from adolescence.
The picture shows a screenshot of the official website of Science.
To study the regeneration process after salamander brain injury, the team performed mechanical damage surgery on the cortical area of the salamander brain and analyzed brain samples from 7 time points of regeneration (days 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 60 after injury). The spatiotemporal data showed that a new subset of neural stem cells appeared in the wound area early in the injury, and this important group of cells was transformed from other subpopulations of neural stem cells near the injury area after being stimulated by the injury, and neurons were regenerated in the subsequent regeneration process to fill the neuronal deletions at the injury site.
In addition, although the wound begins to be gradually filled with nascent tissue at an early stage, it is not until day 60 after injury that the cell type and spatial distribution of the injured area are observed on the space-time map to return to the state of the uninjured side.
By comparing the neuronal formation process of the salamander brain development and regeneration process, the researchers found that this process is highly similar to the regeneration and development process, suggesting that brain damage may induce the reverse transformation of salamander neural stem cells back to the youthful state of the developmental period to initiate the regeneration process.
"This study is mainly based on the spatiotemporal omics technology Stereo-seq independently developed by BGI, which achieves Nanoscale cell resolution, combined with the advantages of large salamander cells, so that researchers can analyze the important cell types of the salamander brain regeneration process in spatiotemporal single-cell resolution, and track the spatial trajectory of their cell lineage changes." The first author of the paper, Dr. Wei Xiaoyu of the Hangzhou Huada Institute of Life Sciences, said.
"The construction of spatio-temporal cell atlas of salamander brain development and regeneration is of great significance for us to understand the important life process of brain regeneration, the evolution of amphibian brain structure and brain structure, providing us with a new direction for finding effective clinical treatment methods, promoting self-repair and regeneration of human tissues and organs, and providing valuable data resources for species evolution research." Xu Xun, co-corresponding author of the paper and president of the BGI Life Sciences Research Institute, said, "In the future, we will also explore the development and regeneration process of more organs and more species through spatiotem-time multi-omics technology, find the key regulatory mechanisms in the regeneration process, and help the development of human regenerative medicine." ”
Spatial-temporal atlas of salamander brain regeneration. Image source: Science
The research was led by Hangzhou Huada Life Science Research Institute, and was jointly completed by 17 units from China, the United States and Denmark, including Shenzhen Huada Life Science Research Institute, Qingdao Huada Gene Research Institute, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, South China Normal University, Wuhan University, School of Life Sciences of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Whitehead Biomedical Research Institute of the United States, and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
According to reports, the study has passed the ethical review and follows the corresponding regulations and ethical guidelines. The Mexican blunt salamander used in the experiment was cultured in the laboratory.
Source: China Youth Daily client