Biology subjects

Schmied, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Schmied, C..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2018

Selective increases in inter-individual variability in response to environmental enrichment

One manifestation of individualization is a progressively differential response of individuals to the non-shared components of the same environment. Individualization has practical implications in clinical setting, where subtle differences between patients are often decisive for the success of an intervention, yet there has been no suitable animal model to study its underlying biological mechanisms. Here we show that enriched environment (ENR) can serve as a model of brain individualization. We kept 40 isogenic mice for 3 months in ENR and compared the effects on a wide range of phenotypes on both mean and variance to an equally sized group of standard-housed control animals. While ENR influenced multiple parameters and restructured correlation patterns between them, it only increased differences among individuals in traits related to brain and behavior (adult hippocampal neurogenesis, motor cortex thickness, open field and object exploration, rotarod performance), in agreement with the hypothesis of a specific activity-dependent development of brain individuality.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2017

Continuous high-resolution in vivo imaging reveals tumor-specific dissemination in an embryonic zebrafish xenograft model

Mechanisms mediating tumor metastasis are crucial for diagnostic and therapeutic targeting. Here, we take advantage of a transparent embryonic zebrafish xenograft model (eZXM) to visualize and track injected human leukemic and breast cancer cells in real time using selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM) for up to 30 hours. Injected cells exhibited disease-specific patterns of intravascular distribution with leukemic cells moving faster than breast cancer cells. While breast cancer cells predominantly adhered to nearby regions, about 30% invaded the avascularized tissue, reminiscent of their metastatic phenotype. Survival of the injected tumor cells was partly inhibited by the cellular innate immune system of the recipient embryos and leukemic cell dissemination was effectively inhibited by pharmacological ROCK1 blockade. These observations, and the ability to image several embryos simultaneously, support the use of eZXM and SPIM imaging as a functional screening platform to identify compounds that restricts cancer cell spread and invasion.

cancer biology↗