Science & Tech · Science & Environment · 10 hrs ago
Laser detects a shared chemical signal in aging mouse cells
Some cells stop dividing as they age but remain in the body, where they can build up in tissues.
These cells, called senescent cells, can be harmful but also help repair damaged tissue.
Researchers used Raman microscopy, which reads chemical patterns from light scattered by a laser, to study lung and skin samples from mice.
They found a fat-linked signal that helped identify senescent cells in both organs, even though the cells’ gene activity differed between them.
The study used thin sections of mouse tissue, and the researchers have not built a device to detect these cells inside a living body.
If the approach can be developed further, it could help researchers check for senescent cells without a biopsy and assess drugs being tested to remove them.
Researchers found a fat-linked chemical signal shared by senescent cells in mouse lung and skin.
Raman microscopy detected the signal by measuring how laser light scattered from tissue.
The study used tissue samples from mice aged 2 months and 26 months.
The researchers say the approach could eventually help detect senescent cells without a biopsy, but they have not built a device for that purpose.
Senescent cells stop dividing and can accumulate with age, but they may also help with wound healing.
- Who
- Researchers including Jeon Woong Kang of MIT, Peter So and Jian Shu.
- What
- They found a fat-linked chemical signal shared by senescent cells in mouse lung and skin that Raman microscopy can detect.
- When
- Not stated
- Where
- Mouse lung and skin tissue; the researchers were affiliated with MIT, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
- Why
- The signal could help researchers detect senescent cells without destroying tissue, and potentially check whether treatments work.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
To be clear, we haven’t built that device. This study was done on mouse tissue sections,
Today you can’t measure senescent cells in a person without taking a biopsy and destroying the tissues,
So I expected their chemistry to differ too.
Researchers scanned mouse lung and skin tissue slices with laser light using Raman microscopy.
They mapped the activity of 890 genes in cells from the same slices to compare chemical signals with gene activity.
The team sequenced genetic material from 35,474 lung cells and 12,128 skin cells, identifying senescent cells by active p21 genes.
- Mouse ages
- 2 months and 26 months
- Organs studied
- Lung and skin
- Gene activity mapped
- 890 genes
- Lung cells sequenced
- 35,474
- Skin cells sequenced
- 12,128
Sources
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