Human-mouse HYBRID: Scientists grow human brain in tiny rodent

www.express.co.uk ^ | 04/19/2018 | By Sean Martin

[Red Badger]

SCIENTISTS have controversially yet successfully grown part of a human brain inside a mouse and the organ even managed to survive for months in a major scientific breakthrough. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For the first ever time miniature human brains have grown in a new species and scientists have suggested the breakthrough could help with stem cell research.

Scientists created the pin-sized human brains from stem cells and then placed them inside the skulls of mice, where a piece of tissue had been removed to make room for the new organ.

Of the test mice, roughly 80 percent survived the operation, and within two weeks the rodents’ implants had been successfully received and were even spawning new neurons.

The brain implants survived for an average of 233 days, but began the process of dying much earlier.

Lead researcher Fred Gage, a neuroscientist at the Salk Institute, said: "In our hands, the organoids stop growing around five weeks.

"It's a function of size rather than time. We see some cell death even in the edge of the organoids starting at 10 weeks, which becomes really dramatic over time.

“This is an obvious hurdle for longtime study."

Abed Al-Fattah Mansour, a research associate at the Salk Institute, said: "That was a big accomplishment.

“We saw infiltration of blood vessels into the organoid and supplying it with blood, which was exciting because it's perhaps the ticket for organoids' long-term survival.”

In this exercise, the scientists accomplished three things – installing an organoid into a complex tissue environment, connecting it to the species and integrating it into the cardiovascular system of the organism.

The researchers say the breakthrough could one day help with repairing organs such as brains from stem cells.

Mr Mansour added: “These three elements are important for both basic research and drug discovery of brain disorders; for example, our approach has the potential for pre-clinical drug testing of patient-specific derived brain organoids under the organism setup.

"In addition, long-term survival could help the organoid to develop beyond the present embryonic stages that we see in culture.

"We hope this technology will set the stage and help to understand the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental, neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders by enabling the generation of brain organoids from patients' own stem cells, transplanted into rodents.”

[NativeSon]

The Secret of NIMH.

[GingisK]

The Secret of Salk.