Credit: Oleksii Shandra
The cortical grey matter of a mouse is depicted in this 3-D reconstructed confocal image. Researchers at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC linked a subtype of atypical brain cells called astroscytes with post-traumatic genesis of epilepsy. The reactive astrocytes are characterized by proteins glutamate transporter 1 (blue) and S100 beta (green). Instead of undergoing cell death after mild traumatic brain injury, the atypical astrocytes have an enhanced expression of fluorescent protein tdTomato (red).