5-D stem cell movie: neural stem cells in their vascular niche

This movie is a “5-D” image sequence. The first three dimensions are (x,y,z). Time is dimension number four. The fifth dimension is the microscope imaging channel, with e.g. blood vessels and ependyma on one channel and neural stem cells on another. Here we can see the relationship between the stem cells and the blood vessels that form their all-important “niche”. The cleavage plane drawn during mitosis (complete with Matrix spin effect) quantifies the “polarity” of the division, or the orientation of the daughter cells relative to the nearest vasculature.