Image used with permission from The FASEB Journal

Highlighting the best image from a 2020 publication, as voted for by you.

This award highlights the best image from a 2020 publication - and we’re thrilled to announce that the winners are Flavia Millesi and the Radtke lab, of the Medical University of Vienna, for an image using antibodies from Thermo Fisher Scientific and Agilent Technologies.

This highly attractive image was published in FASEB Journal in November 2020, in a paper titled ‘Defining the regenerative effects of native spider silk fibres on primary Schwann cells, sensory neurons, and nerve-associated fibroblasts’.

The paper focuses on the use of spider silk in the search for a suitable material to promote regeneration after long-distance peripheral nerve defects. Nerve conduits enriched with native spider silk fibres as internal guiding structures previously demonstrated a regenerative outcome similar to autologous nerv grafts in animal studies. The reasons behind the success of spider silk are still uncertain, which is why Flavia Millesi and team investigated the effect of spider silk on Schwann cells, the crucial cells in peripheral nerve regeneration.

The team’s winning image demonstrates that Schwann cells not only accept spider silk as a natural adhesive, but that they also proliferate on the fibres (EdU+ cells in red). Moreover, the cells aligned to the fibres reminiscent of bands of Büngner, a structure Schwann cells align to in order to guide re-growing axons. In further experiments, the researchers showed that silk also facilitates the migratory capacity of Schwann cells. The study established read-outs for a refined and detailed behavioral analysis of primary Schwann cells (as well as nerve-associated rFBs and rDRG neurons) cultured on native dragline silk, which will assist future studies of biomaterials.

Dr Andrew Chalmers, founder of CiteAb, said: “Here at CiteAb we collect published images data, and as a result our team sees many fantastic images. This award allows researchers and suppliers of products to enter images to be judged on their aesthetic quality - we’re thrilled to have received some fantastic entries. Huge congratulations to Flavia Millesi and the Radtke lab who produced this amazing image and important research. I also offer my congratulations to Thermo Fisher Scientific and Agilent Technologies who supplied the products used in this research.”