Magnetic labeling of primary murine monocytes using very small superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles.

Due to their very small size, nanoparticles can interact with all cells in the central nervous system. One of the most promising nanoparticle subgroups are very small superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (VSOP) that are citrate coated for electrostatic stabilization. To determine their influence on murine blood-derived monocytes, which easily enter the injured central nervous system, we applied VSOP and carboxydextran-coated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (Resovist).

Biocompatibility of very small superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles in murine organotypic hippocampal slice cultures and the role of microglia.

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIO) are applied as contrast media for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and treatment of neurologic diseases despite the fact that important information concerning their local interactions is still lacking. Due to their small size, SPIO have great potential for magnetically labeling different cell populations, facilitating their MRI tracking in vivo. Before SPIO are applied, however, their effect on cell viability and tissue homoeostasis should be studied thoroughly.

Studying Axonal Outgrowth and Regeneration of the Corticospinal Tract in Organotypic Slice Cultures.

Studies of axonal outgrowth and regeneration after spinal cord injury are hampered by the complexity of the events involved. Here, we present a simple and improved in vitro approach to investigate outgrowth, regeneration of the corticospinal tract, and intrinsic parenchymal responses. We prepared organotypic co-cultures using explants from the motor cortex of postnatal donor mice ubiquitously expressing green fluorescent protein and cervical spinal cord from wild type pups of the same age.

New findings about iron oxide nanoparticles and their different effects on murine primary brain cells.

The physicochemical properties of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIOs) enable their application in the diagnostics and therapy of central nervous system diseases. However, since crucial information regarding side effects of particle-cell interactions within the central nervous system is still lacking, we investigated the influence of novel very small iron oxide particles or the clinically approved ferucarbotran or ferumoxytol on the vitality and morphology of brain cells. We exposed primary cell cultures of microglia and hippocampal neurons, as well as neuron-glia cocultures to varying concentrations of SPIOs for 6 and/or 24 hours, respectively.

Clonal analysis in recurrent astrocytic, oligoastrocytic and oligodendroglial tumors implicates IDH1- mutation as common tumor initiating event.

Background: To investigate the dynamics of inter- and intratumoral molecular alterations during tumor progression in recurrent gliomas.

Methodology/principal Findings: To address intertumoral heterogeneity we investigated non-microdissected tumor tissue of 106 gliomas representing 51 recurrent tumors. To address intratumoral heterogeneity a set of 16 gliomas representing 7 tumor pairs with at least one recurrence, and 4 single mixed gliomas were investigated by microdissection of distinct oligodendroglial and astrocytic tumor components.