Search results for "Brain tissue"

Exploring Cell Biodiversity

2015

Brain tissue is a really complex system composed of different cell types that change in shape and size. A single neuron itself has a cell body, dendrites and an axon. About 80% of cerebral tissue consists of water molecules that are confined (intra and extra cellular) in its disordered biologic networks. Using neutron scattering on IN13 we are able to explore hydrogens (H) dynamics in time scale at about 40 ps and in size scale at about 1 Å. Such characteristic make it suitable to investigate brain tissue heterogeneity exploiting hydrogens as a probe since major constituent of macromolecules and water. Elastic neutron scattering (ENS) gives information about means square displacement (MSDs)…

Exploring cell biodiversity - Neutron scattering investigation of water diffusion in complex system

2015

Scientists from biophysics, biology and medicine fields are interested in exploring and characterizing topologically cerebral tissue in order to diagnostic different diseases which affect brain in many patients [1-3]. One of the most diffuse diagnostic techniques is dMRI (diffusion magnetic resonance imaging) which extracts information about heterogeneity and asymmetries in brain tissue studying water diffusion dynamics (~80% mass constituent of tissues). The experimental limit of this technique is related to the acquisition time, TA, of the order of milliseconds. Water molecules diffuse within micrometre distance using TA as diffuse time (Eistein equation D~2TA). Cells have micrometric siz…

Water Dynamics in Biological Systems investigated using Neutron Scattering Techniques

Living systems can not survive in absence of the water environments which play a fundamental role in living functions. Thus in the scienti?c community many studies were and are addressed to characterize water and its dynamics properties in biological systems. However, a clear description of water in such systems has been not reached yet. In fact, the investigations performed with di?erent techniques - those based on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance or those based on Neutron Scattering - look at di?erent di?usive motions and interactions water-biomolecules, leading controversial results and hence generating many debates between scientists. In this thesis we support the idea that two water populati…