Spectral Characterization of Stem Cell-Derived Myelination within the Injured Adult PNS Using the Solvatochromic Dye Nile Red.

Joey Grochmal, Wulin Teo, Hardeep Gambhir, Ranjan Kumar, Jo Anne Stratton, Raveena Dhaliwal, Craig Brideau, Jeff Biernaskie, Peter Stys, Rajiv Midha

Cells 2020 Jan 11

filter terms:

Myelin is an essential component of the peripheral and central nervous system, enabling fast axonal conduction and supporting axonal integrity; limited tools exist for analysis of myelin composition in-vivo. To demonstrate that the photophysical properties of myelin-incorporated solvatochromic dyes can be exploited to probe the biochemical composition of living peripheral nerve myelin at high spatial resolution. Using the myelin-incorporated fluorescent dye Nile Red we sequentially analyzed the spectral characteristics of remyelinating myelin membranes both in-vitro and in-vivo, including in living rats. We demonstrated a consistent bi-phasic evolution of emission spectra during early remyelination, and visually report the reliable biochemical flux of myelin membrane composition in-vitro and in-vivo. Solvatochromic spectroscopy enables the analysis of myelin membrane maturity during remyelination, and can be performed in-vivo. As the formation of myelin during early-to-late remyelination likely incorporates fluctuating fractions of lipophilic components and changes in lateral membrane mobility, we propose that our spectrochemical data reflects the observation of these biochemical processes.

Citation

Joey Grochmal, Wulin Teo, Hardeep Gambhir, Ranjan Kumar, Jo Anne Stratton, Raveena Dhaliwal, Craig Brideau, Jeff Biernaskie, Peter Stys, Rajiv Midha. Spectral Characterization of Stem Cell-Derived Myelination within the Injured Adult PNS Using the Solvatochromic Dye Nile Red. Cells. 2020 Jan 11;9(1)