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Histology and cell culture laboratory

​The Cell culture laboratory aims at preparing in vitro models used to test interactions of cell lines with innovative drugs or contrast agents, but also at developing in vivo animal models for MRI studies. The lab also offers histology and fluorescence microscopy capabilities to image immunostained organs, allowing validating and complementing MRI acquisitions.

Published on 24 April 2023

Frozen cell lines are stored to prepare in vitro/in vivo models of cancer (glioblastoma, epidermoid carcinoma, cervical or breast cancer), and to generate 2D cell cultures or even more innovative 3D cell cultures, in order to study interactions of drugs or contrast agents with cells of interest, before moving to animal models.

Histological studies performed after MRI acquisitions are a classical way to confirm MRI data and to give more information about organ features (structure, active cells or dying cells, interactions between contrast agent and target, vasculature…) at a higher resolution than MRI. Immunostaining is usually performed on tissue slice of organ, especially brain, providing informations about the microenvironment (inflammation, apoptosis, generation of new cells…). Finally, new techniques are currently under development to perform tissue clearing, enabling for example deep imaging of the whole mouse brain (500-1000 μm).

​MAIN TECHNICAL FEATURES

  • Set-up of immunohistochemical (simple or multiple) and histochemical stainings
  • Visualization of histological stainings using bright-field or fluorescence microscopy (AxioObserver Z1 system equipped with apotome technology and Zen2 software)
  • Imaris Software for histological data analysis
  • Cryopreservation system for storing different cancerous cell lines (U87, C6, 9L, Gl261…)
  • Incubator dedicated to cells growth in a strictly controlled CO2 environment