Researchers from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the US have created technology that allows simultaneous recording of cell activity throughout the body, according to a publication in the journal Nature. The method makes it possible to understand how different organs and tissues interact with each other at the cellular level throughout the entire body at once, which scientists could not achieve before.
Scientists have developed a technology called the Whole Body Imaging System for Recording Tissue Activity and Intracellular Processes (WHOLISTIC). The researchers used it on transparent vertebrates – young zebrafish and adult fish Danionella cerebrum.
The method uses genetic engineering: almost every cell in the body begins to produce fluorescent calcium sensors. They glow when calcium levels in cells change. Calcium is an almost universal intracellular signal and is involved in many processes in the body.
Previously, scientists studied organs and systems separately, while the body as a whole remained “behind the scenes.” Now, thanks to the research, it is possible to better understand biological processes at the level of the whole organism, as well as observe them synchronously.
“Combining optogenetics with WHOLISTIC technology has enabled an all-optical cause-and-effect study of brain-body interaction. These advances create a systems biology paradigm that integrates the physiology of cells and the body as a whole, allowing for complex discoveries at all levels – from fundamental mechanisms to therapeutic ones,” the scientific publication notes.
The work helps fill a gap in observing biological processes, computational neuroscientist Virginie Rutten, who developed the method along with other scientists, told ScienceAlert.
“This work brings together two fundamental biological levels—the cell and the organism. There are some really basic properties that just haven't been studied because it was so difficult to observe cellular reactions at this scale,” Rutten explained.
The importance of the study was also noted by neuroscientist Misha Arens. According to him, the created technology makes it possible to combine physiology, neurobiology and cell biology and study them simultaneously on the same animal. The team hopes that scientists around the world will be able to use this method in their work, which will provide new data on the interaction of cells, tissues and organs on the scale of the whole organism.
