Marijn Schipper and Danielle Posthuma from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Camiel Mannens and Sten Linnarsson from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have created a large atlas of half a million cells in the embryonic brain. They also mapped out which pieces of DNA are ‘open’ and active in these cells. The new atlas allows the development of different types in healthy brains to be better studied.
By understanding what healthy development of the different types of brain cells looks like, researchers can also better understand how disruptions can lead to diseases. These findings have been published in Nature.
Crucial period
Similar atlases have been made before in the past, but never before in the entire brain during embryonic development. And that is precisely a crucial period in the development of the brain. Neuroscientist Danielle Posthuma explains that many cells specialize in the embryonic stage, which involves a very precise organization of the DNA. During this period, some pieces of DNA are closed, they have no function in that cell at that moment, and some pieces of DNA are open. According to Posthuma, these pieces of DNA play an important role in regulating the expression of proteins in that cell.
Early detection
The researchers say that different cell types, for example neurons, can be characterized based on the patterns of the stretches of DNA that are open and closed. These patterns change over time. The researchers deliberately chose to map the open stretches of DNA in early embryonic development because errors at this early stage can have major consequences, for example for the development of psychiatric disorders.
First atlas
This information also provides greater insight into processes when things go wrong, such as in psychiatric disorders but also in the development of different types of brain tumors. According to the AMC, 2016 was the first time that a good, three-dimensional atlas of the development of a human embryo was available. The 3D Atlas took seven years to create. The atlas cleared up a number of misunderstandings about the development of the human embryo. It meant a new view on congenital defects.
