Clancy, K. B. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2022

Endometrial decidualization status modulates endometrial perivascular complexity and trophoblast outgrowth in gelatin hydrogels

The endometrium undergoes rapid cycles of vascular growth, remodeling, and breakdown during the menstrual cycle and pregnancy. Decidualization is an endometrial differentiation process driven by steroidal sex hormones that is critical for blastocyst-uterine interfacing and blastocyst implantation. Certain pregnancy disorders may be linked to decidualization processes. However, much remains unknown regarding the role of decidualization and reciprocal trophoblast-endometrial interactions on endometrial angiogenesis and trophoblast invasion. Here, we report an artificial endometrial perivascular niche embedded in gelatin methacrylol hydrogels that displays morphological and functional patterns of decidualization. We show vessel complexity and soluble factor secretion are sensitive to decidualization and affect trophoblast motility. Importantly, we demonstrate the engineered perivascular niche can be combined with epithelial cultures to form a stratified endometrial model. This artificial perivascular niche provides a well-characterized platform to investigate dynamic changes in angiogenesis in response to pathological and physiological endometrial states. TeaserWe describe an endometrial vessel model to understand endometrial vasculature in the menstrual cycle and pregnancy.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2019

The sensory representation of causally controlled objects

Intentional control over external objects is informed by our sensory experience of them. To study how causal relationships are learned and effected, we devised a brain machine interface (BMI) task utilising wide-field calcium signals. Mice learned to entrain activity patterns in arbitrary pairs of cortical regions to guide a visual cursor to a target location for reward. Brain areas that were normally correlated could be rapidly reconfigured to exert control over the cursor in a sensory feedback-dependent manner. Higher visual cortex was more engaged when expert but not naive animals controlled the cursor. Individual neurons in higher visual cortex responded more strongly to the cursor when mice controlled it than when they passively viewed it, with the greatest response boosting as the cursor approached target location. Thus, representations of causally-controlled objects are sensitive to intention and proximity to the subjects goal, potentially strengthening sensory feedback to allow more fluent control.

neuroscience↗