Scientific Breakthrough
A multiplex imaging tool, Phenocycler 2.0, has enabled researchers from Indiana’s University School of Medicine to study bone marrow in their quest for finding new drugs to treat leukaemia. This tool has made it possible to record number of cellular markers within intact bone marrow tissue from mice.
This imaging breakthrough by scientists made it possible to overcome key challenges unique to imaging this complex tissue. The Phenocycler 2.0 can also be applied to treat other cancers, autoimmune diseases and musculoskeletal disorders.
With the publication of their findings in the specialised publication, Leukemia, Dr Sonali Karnik, assistant research professor of orthopaedic surgery at the IU School of Medicine and co-lead author of the study, explained the difficulty of studying bone marrow, due to its gelatinous structure and because it is encased in hard bone.
“As bone marrow plays an important role in blood and immune cell formation, housing valuable stem cells, our unique imaging approach offers a useful tool for a variety of research applications.” – Dr Sonali Karnik
Traditional tools such as flow cytometry and standard fluorescence imaging are considered the most established methods for tissue analysis. However, flow cytometry requires disrupting complex tissues to study and quantify cell populations. Standard fluorescent imaging is limited to detecting only three cellular markers at a time. In contrast, the new methodology allowed the researchers to visualize 25 different cellular markers in intact bone marrow tissue without disruption. This provides a more comprehensive view of bone marrow towards understanding of disease behaviours and development of more effective treatments.
While Phenocycler 2.0 has previously been used to study organs such as the spleen and kidney, the IU Cooperative Center of Excellence in Haematology, is the first to successfully apply it to mouse bone marrow.
According to Dr Reuben Kapur, , a co-senior author of the study and director of the IU School of Medicine’s Herman B Wells Center for Paediatric Research and co-director of the IU Cooperative Center of Excellence in Haematology, the new technique offers a promising new method for investigating a range of conditions.
The IU Innovation and Commercialization Office has filed a provisional patent for the new imaging methodology, while the research team is engaged in expanding the marker panel abilities to include additional features such as bone, nerves, muscle and more immune and signalling cell types.
Additional IU study authors include Connor Gulbronson, Paige C. Jordan, Rahul Kanumuri, Baskar Ramdas, Ramesh Kumar, Melissa L. Hartman, Izza Khurram, Drew M. Brown, Karen E. Pollok, Pratibha Singh and Melissa A. Kacena.
This research was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health.
