Scientists transplanted human brain organoids into rats to repair injuries to their visual processing systems.
Miniature, lab-grown models of the human brain's wrinkled surface can be used to patch injuries in the brains of living rats and thus repair broken connections in the rodents' sensory processing systems, a new study shows. Someday, such minibrains — known as brain organoids — could potentially be used to mend the brains of human patients, too, the study authors propose.
In their new study, published Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell , Chen and his colleagues demonstrated that brain organoids grown from human stem cells can be transplanted into an injured rat's visual cortex, where information from the eyes first gets sent for processing. When light hits the retina in the eye, an electrical message zips to the"primary" visual cortex, which begins parsing the basic features of whatever's in front of the eye.
To transplant each organoid into a rat brain, the team removed a piece of each rodent's skull, placed the organoid inside and sealed the hole with a protective cap. The rats received immune-suppressing drugs during and after the procedure, to prevent their bodies from rejecting the transplant.
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