(ORDO NEWS) — Scientists implanted a ‘mini-brain’ made up of human cells into lab rats as part of a study that could further help treat serious brain injuries.
In their experiment, the scientists used brain organoids – small clusters of human brain cells, previously grown in a Petri dish.
They planted living organelles in the brains of rats, and after a few weeks they were fully integrated into the neural network.
According to scientists, it is quite possible that such manipulations will be used in the future to restore damaged brain tissue in humans.
To do this, you will need to take a piece of the patient’s skin, place it in a protein solution so that it turns into induced stem cells, which, in turn, can become cells of any type.
That is, these cells can be turned into a “spare piece” of brain tissue, which, in theory, should ideally fit the patient.
However, these studies are still at an early stage. The purpose of the experiment described above was to test whether human and rat brain cells could form strong bonds.
“We focused on transplanting not just single cells, but tissue,” said lead author of the study, Professor Isaac Chen of the University of Pennsylvania.
“The brain organoids have their own architecture. They have a structure that resembles the brain.
We were able to study individual neurons in this structure in order to better understand the process of integration of transplanted organelles,” he added.
These organelles, sometimes referred to as “mini-brains”, were grown from human stem cells in the laboratory for about 80 days.
Then they were planted in the brains of adult rats with damage to the visual cortex – the part of the brain that is responsible for vision.
Within 90 days, these organelles were fully integrated into the brain of rats: blood vessels appeared, supplying the “mini-brain” with nutrients, the organelles increased in size, and their cells formed connections with neurons in the brain of rats.
When rats were shone in the eyes, the neurons of the organelles reacted to this, and the nature of their activity changed depending on the light stimulation.
“We didn’t expect to see this degree of functional integration so quickly,” Chen said.
“Neural tissue has the potential to repair damaged parts of the brain. While we have not been able to study all the details, we have already taken a confident first step.”
“Now we need to figure out how organoids can be used in other parts of the cerebral cortex – not just in the visual cortex.
We also want to understand the laws that govern the integration of organoid neurons into the brain in order to better control and possibly accelerate this process.”
Ethicists are already wondering if an organoid created in the laboratory is capable of experiencing any feelings one day.
There is currently a consensus that the tissue fragments used in this new experiment are not capable of self-awareness and cannot feel pain. The results of the study were published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
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