Make a small brain in the laboratory

2013/09/06 Etxebeste Aduriz, Egoitz - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Bioteknologia
• Biologia

Austrian and British researchers have managed to create a structure that approaches a small brain from human stem cells. In the article published in Nature, this structure has been called brain organoid, and although it is far from being an artificially created brain, they have explained that it has structures similar to those of the real brain. It is somehow like the brain of a nine-month-old fetus.

The first embryonic stem cells grew in a synthetic gel that mimics connective tissue. They were then moved into a bioreactor to get enough food and oxygen into the tissues. Thus, little by little, the cells multiplied and tissues were formed until they developed the ‘garuntxos’. They do not develop the blood vessel and, according to researchers, it can be one of the causes of not growing anymore. Its maximum diameter is three millimeters, after two or three months of growth. However, they remain in the bioreactor for a long time: the elderly have already reached almost a year.

Although they are still limited for use as a brain model, they may be useful for the study of diseases difficult to investigate in animal models. For example, it has already helped them know more about microcephaly.

Microcephaly is a neurological disease that causes the brain and mind to grow less than normal. By reprogramming the superficial cells of people suffering from this disease, induced stem cells were obtained from which brain organoids were formed. And they did the same from healthy people's cells to compare them with the previous ones. They observed that ‘garuntxos’ made from sick cells grew less. In addition, they have come to the conclusion that this is because some pioneer cells arrive too fast, which makes tissue growth stop ahead of time.