Imagine if parts of the brain could be grown in the lab and used for transplants. The scientists at the University of California San Diego have been able to get us closer to that reality.
The test subjects' eyes were exposed to light in a similar way to the brain tissue.
Researchers used an innovative system to measure electrical activity in the organoid that showed an integrated response to visual stimuli.
It is the first time that scientists have been able to confirm functional connections in a brain transplant in real time thanks to improved implants.
We envision that this combination of stem cell and neurorecording technologies will be used for modeling disease at a level of neural circuits, examination of candidate treatments on patient-specific genetic background, and evaluation of organoids' potential to restore specific lost, degenerate.
A team of engineers and neuroscientists developed a system to measure brain wave activity at both a macro and micro level.
The setup uses flexible and transparent microelectrodes that can be placed into the brain. The tech accurately shows spikes in neural activity from both the transplant organoid and surrounding brain tissue.
The human organoids formed functional connections with the rest of the mouse visual cortex less than a month after transplant.
The foreign tissue had penetrated the host's brain two months later.
Some studies have shown that human mini-brains can connect to blood vessels in animals. The brain starts to grow and self organize.
Scientists created a pea-sized blob of two million neurons from pluripotent stem cells in 2019.
Human brain organoids are formed by pluripotent stem cells. If they are bathed in the right cocktail of molecule, they can differentiate into a wide variety of tissues and organs. Scientists are still working out the exact timing of that mixture.
The feasibility of achieving functional sight in a lab-grown brain is still a long way off, despite the fact that a brain organoid started to develop eye structures.
It could be a more realistic goal to grow a human brain from stem cells. It has been done before in rodents, but it has been difficult to determine if the foreign brain is getting functional input from the rest of the brain.
Scientists have to remove the metal electrodes from the brain because they don't give a clear field of view, which can make it difficult to perform a tissue transplant.
The problem can be solved with transparent electrodes. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have shown that light can cause brain changes in a mouse.
"We envision that, further along the road, this combination of stem cells and neuro recording technologies will be used for modeling disease under physiological conditions, examining candidate treatments on patient-specific organoids, and evaluating organoids' potential to restore specific lost, degenerated or damaged brain regions," says
The study was published in a scientific journal.
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