Biology subjects

Luo, A. C.

Publications and source records attributed to Luo, A. C..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

An open, fully-processed data resource for studying mood and sleep variability in the developing brain

Brain development during adolescence and early adulthood coincides with shifts in emotion regulation and sleep. Despite this, few existing datasets simultaneously characterize affective dynamics, sleep variation, and multimodal measures of brain development. Here, we describe the study protocol and initial release (n = 10) of an open data resource of neuroimaging paired with densely sampled behavioral measures in adolescents and young adults. All participants complete multi-echo functional MRI, compressed-sensing diffusion MRI, and advanced arterial spin-labeled MRI. Behavioral measures include ecological momentary assessment, actigraphy, extensive cognitive assessments, and detailed clinical phenotyping focused on emotion regulation. Raw and processed data are openly available without a data use agreement and will be regularly updated as accrual continues. Together, this resource will accelerate research on the links between mood, sleep, and brain development.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Two Axes of White Matter Development

Despite decades of neuroimaging research, how white matter develops along the length of major tracts in humans remains unknown. Here, we identify fundamental patterns of white matter maturation by examining developmental variation along major, long-range cortico-cortical tracts in youth ages 5-23 years using diffusion MRI from three large-scale, cross-sectional datasets (total N = 2,716). Across datasets, we delineate two replicable axes of human white matter development. First, we find a deep-to-superficial axis, in which superficial tract regions near the cortical surface exhibit greater age-related change than deep tract regions. Second, we demonstrate that the development of superficial tract regions aligns with the cortical hierarchy defined by the sensorimotor-association axis, with tract ends adjacent to sensorimotor cortices maturing earlier than those adjacent to association cortices. These results reveal developmental variation along tracts that conventional tract-average analyses have previously obscured, challenging the implicit assumption that white matter tracts mature uniformly along their length. Such developmental variation along tracts may have functional implications, including mitigating ephaptic coupling in densely packed deep tract regions and tuning neural synchrony through hierarchical development in superficial tract regions - ultimately refining neural transmission in youth.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Enhanced intramyocardial vascular cell delivery promotes post-myocardial infarction healing by polarizing pro-regenerative neutrophils

The success of vascular progenitor cell transplantation to treat myocardial infarction (MI) is primarily limited by the low engraftment of delivered cells due to a washout effect during myocardium contraction. A clinically applicable biomaterial to improve cell retention is arguably needed to enable optimization of intramyocardial cell delivery. Here, we developed a novel therapeutic cell delivery method for MI treatment based on a photocrosslinkable gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) hydrogel. A combination of human vascular progenitor cells (endothelial progenitors and mesenchymal stem cells) with the capacity to form functional vasculatures after transplantation, were injected with a rapid in-situ photopolymerization approach into the infarcted zone of mouse hearts. Our approach significantly improved acute cell retention and achieved a long-term beneficial post-MI cardiac healing, including stabilizing cardiac functions, preserving viable myocardium, and preventing cardiac fibrosis. Furthermore, the engrafted vascular cells polarized recruited bone marrow-derived neutrophils toward a non-inflammatory phenotype via TGF{beta} signaling, establishing a pro-regenerative microenvironment. Depletion of neutrophils canceled the therapeutic benefits produced by cell delivery in the ischemic hearts, indicating that the non-inflammatory, pro-regenerative neutrophils were indispensable mediators of cardiac remodeling. In summary, our novel GelMA hydrogel-based intramyocardial vascular cell delivery approach has the potential to improve the treatment of acute MI.

bioengineering↗