Copyright
©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Dec 26, 2021; 13(12): 1918-1927
Published online Dec 26, 2021. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v13.i12.1918
Published online Dec 26, 2021. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v13.i12.1918
SmartFlareTM is a reliable method for assessing mRNA expression in single neural stem cells
Andrea Diana, Maria Dolores Setzu, Cristina Maxia, Daniela Murtas, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Monserrato 09042, Cagliari, Italy
Zaal Kokaia, Laboratory of Stem Cells & Restorative Neurology, Lund Stem Cell Center, Lund University, Lund SE-221 84, Lund, Sweden
Roxana Nat, Institute of Neuroscience, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck 6020, Austria
Author contributions: Maxia C and Murtas D share senior authorship; Diana A, Setzu MD, Maxia C, and Murtas D contributed to the conception and design of the study, data interpretation, and funding acquisition; Diana A, Kokaia Z, and Nat R contributed to methodology and data acquisition and analysis; Diana A wrote the original draft of the article; Diana A, Maxia C and Murtas D wrote, reviewed and edited the paper, and contributed to project administration and supervision; all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by the "Fondo Integrativo per la Ricerca" (FIR) of the University of Cagliari , Italy.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Lund/Malmö Ethical Committee of the Lund University, Sweden (ethical permit number No. Dnr 6.1.8-2887/2017).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Andrea Diana, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria di Monserrato SS 554 Bivio per Sestu, Monserrato 09042, Cagliari, Italy. diana@unica.it
Received: June 18, 2021
Peer-review started: June 18, 2021
First decision: July 17, 2021
Revised: August 11, 2021
Accepted: December 10, 2021
Article in press: December 10, 2021
Published online: December 26, 2021
Peer-review started: June 18, 2021
First decision: July 17, 2021
Revised: August 11, 2021
Accepted: December 10, 2021
Article in press: December 10, 2021
Published online: December 26, 2021
Core Tip
Core Tip: The detection of RNA transcripts in living cells is a challenge in embryonic development and cancer related studies. In the last decade, a straightforward and noninvasive approach has emerged, exploiting the combination of nanotechnology and the physiological behavior of stem cells. Although SmartFlareTM technology is far from providing an unambiguous localization of specific mRNAs, it might help in elucidating the time-dependent dynamics of RNA expression at single-cell level, where results are coherent with those coming from both qRT-PCR and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), the gold standards for mRNA analysis.