Understanding Brain Tumors with Expansion Microscopy

Thursday - February 1 2024, 21:34 UTC - 9 months ago

Researchers have developed a new microscopy technique called expansion microscopy, which allows them to see human brain tissue in unprecedented detail. By expanding the tissue and labeling multiple molecules per sample, they were able to identify more aggressive tumor cells in low-grade gliomas. This technique could have implications for diagnosing and treating brain tumors.

In recent years, advancements in microscopy have allowed researchers to image biological structures with greater detail and precision. Now, a team of researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School have developed a novel microscopy technique that has enabled them to examine human brain tissue in unprecedented detail – expansion microscopy.

The potential of this technology extends far beyond producing pretty images – it could aid in the diagnosis and treatment of brain tumors, providing more accurate prognoses and aiding doctors in selecting the most appropriate treatments. The team hopes that this technique could eventually become a routine diagnostic tool for neurodegenerative diseases as well.

The expansion microscopy technique works by embedding the tissue sample into a polymer that swells in water. By expanding the tissue and separating the proteins that normally hold it together, researchers are able to obtain images with a resolution up to 70 nanometers. This level of resolution was previously only achievable with very specialized and expensive microscopes, such as scanning electron microscopes.

But what sets this technique apart is not just its ability to produce high-resolution images, but also its ability to label multiple molecules per tissue sample. The researchers were able to label up to 16 different molecules per sample, including markers for various structures and cell types, as well as molecules linked to tumor aggressiveness and neurodegeneration.

By applying this technique to human brain tumors, the researchers were able to make an intriguing discovery. Tumors considered less aggressive, known as low-grade gliomas, were found to have more putative aggressive tumor cells than expected. This suggests that these tumors may be more aggressive than previously thought and could have important implications for treatment and prognosis.

The potential of this technique to improve our understanding of brain tumors is immense. With the ability to see how neurons and synapses interact with surrounding tissues at the nanoscale, researchers can gain valuable insights into the growth and progression of brain tumors. As lead author Pablo Valdes explains, "A lot of those things we really couldn't see with conventional tools, but now we have a tool to look at those tissues at the nanoscale and try to understand these interactions." .

This groundbreaking study was published in Science Translational Medicine, with Edward Boyden, the Y. Eva Tan Professor of Neurotechnology at MIT, as the lead researcher. This work was made possible with support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Science Foundation.