"Structures resembling small human brains can form neural connections if transplanted into a rat brain.
Transplanting structures resembling miniature human brains into the visual areas of rats’ brains can help the animals to see.
Brain organoids are tiny structures that are grown from stem cells and develop anatomy similar to that of a real brain.
To test the abilities of these miniaturized structures, Dennis Jgamadze at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and his colleagues grew brain organoids from human stem cells, and transplanted them into rats. The animals had injuries to their visual cortex, the most important brain region for processing visual information.
The human cells formed connections with the rats’ retinas, and fired when the animals looked at flashing lights or black and white bars. The finding is promising, the researchers say, because it suggests that adult brains can still form the kinds of connection that are established when brains are first developing. In the future, people with a damaged visual cortex might be treated with similar organoids grown from their own stem cells." [1]
I wonder what the human brain cells think when they realize that they are in the body of a rat. "How did I get here?"
1. Nature 614, 198 (2023)
Komentarų nėra:
Rašyti komentarą