{"doi":"10.1101/2025.05.24.655973","title":"OPTRACE: Optical Imaging–Guided Transplantation and Tracking of Cells in the Mouse Brain","abstract":"Intracerebral cell transplantation holds great promise for treating stroke and other neurological disorders, but progress is hindered by challenges in precise cell delivery and limited methods for monitoring post-engraftment dynamics. To address these limitations, we introduce OPTRACE (OPtical imaging-guided Transplantation and tRAcking of CElls), a two-step framework that integrates precision delivery with longitudinal in vivo tracking to advance cell therapy. During transplantation, OPTRACE enables real-time visualization using cost-effective translucent glass micropipettes, guided by predictive modeling to optimize delivery parameters. A novel pulse-elevation injection technique further enhances the precision of superficial cortical engraftment. Following transplantation, multicolor labeling combined with two-photon fluorescence microscopy permits longitudinal single-cell tracking, revealing host microglial responses, and altered neuronal calcium signaling at the graft interface. By unifying high-resolution delivery and tracking strategies, OPTRACE provides a powerful platform for elucidating engraftment biology and accelerating the development of effective cell-based interventions for neurological diseases.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2025,"id":558037,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9505,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1458498,"name":"Colleen Russel","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1444108,"name":"Mikolaj Walczak","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1443611,"name":"Dawei Gao","orcid":"0000-0002-5525-8717","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1133527,"name":"Guanda Qiao","orcid":"0000-0002-2483-6393","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":477619,"name":"Xiaoxuan Fan","orcid":"0000-0003-0501-771X","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":416230,"name":"Chengyan Chu","orcid":"0000-0002-4486-1051","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":416235,"name":"Mirosław Janowski","orcid":"0000-0001-5261-7975","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":416236,"name":"Piotr Walczak","orcid":"0000-0002-3733-3322","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":566037,"name":"Yajie Liang","orcid":"0000-0002-4798-4882","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":259278,"name":"Jinghui Wang","orcid":"0000-0001-8126-0530","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":68,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:55:21.727661Z","pmid":"40502154","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}