Cool cell images and a dash of science!

Eyewire General
#1

Check out this oddly shaped cell.


spiral.png853×586 198 KB

The green cell is a starburst amacrine cell that has wrapped itself around a blood vessel (shown in brown).  Normally starburst amacrine cells stay in one flat layer.

starburst_1.png1009×685 49.7 KB

Here it is from the side, see how everything pretty much stays on one level?


We were a bit perplexed when we saw this cell doing a spiral.  They’re not supposed to do that!  Soon we noticed that the oddly behaving starburst amarcrine cell was wrapped around a blood vessel.  We think the blood vessel obstructed the growth and development of the nearby neurons, and made them change the directions they were growing.

Cool, isn’t it?

1 Like
#2

I think it’s very cool!

1 Like
#3

Also!  More information about starburst amacrine cells–their function, shape, and whatnot, can be found on our wiki http://wiki.eyewire.org/en/Starburst_Amacrine_Cell  There are also some links to papers should you wish to learn even more.

1 Like
#4

There’s no image showing whole cell and blood vessel entanglement? That would also look interesting.

1 Like
#5

Nope, not yet, if we do get that image I’ll be sure to post it!

1 Like