Scientists transplanted human cells into a rat's brain to create "hybrid circuits"
That can be used to conduct experiments that would be deemed too invasive, dangerous or downright impossible to conduct on humans.
Scientists at the Stanford School of Medicine have successfully transplanted human brain cells into the brains of rats
where the cells grew and formed connections to create “hybrid circuits.”
This experiment was aimed at creating new methods for researching mental disorders and brain development.
Growing and manipulating human brain tissue inside a rat’s brain will allow researchers to observe the effect it has on animal behavior, according to a press statement.
This “living laboratory” of a rat’s brain will allow researchers to perform experiments that would be too invasive
Difficult and sometimes outright impossible to perform on humans, the researchers noted.
We can now study healthy brain development as well as brain disorders understood to take root
Development in unprecedented detail, without needing to excise tissue from a human brain.
We can also use this new platform to test new drugs and gene therapies for neuropsychiatric disorders,”
Said Sergiu Pasca, corresponding author of the study published in the journal Nature, in a press statement.
Now that transplants were successful, the next step was to understand whether these organoids would actually be helpful in finding the causes of human neuropsychiatric disorders.
For this, the researchers chose Timothy syndrome, which is a genetic disorder that is strongly associated with autism and epilepsy.
They created an organoid from a Timothy syndrome patient’s skin cells and transplanted it into one side of the rat’s brain.
On a corresponding spot on the other side, they transplanted an organoid created using a healthy individual’s cells, to serve as a control.
They created an organoid from a Timothy syndrome patient’s skin cells and transplanted it into one side of the rat’s brain.
The Timothy syndrome neurons were much smaller and sprouted much fewer dendrites or brush-like extensions that act as an antenna for input from nearby regions.