Mice lacking an olfactory system have had their sense of smell restored with neurons from rats, the first time scientists have successfully integrated the sensory apparatus of one species into another.
f mice ever wonder what it's like to experience the world as a rat, some are now able to live that dream, at least when it comes to the sense of smell.
"This research is starting to show us how we can expand the flexibility of a brain so that it can accommodate other kinds of inputs, from human-machine interfaces or transplanted stem cells," says Baldwin, professor of genetics and development at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.One of the biggest challenges in understanding and treating diseases of the human brain is that it is impossible to fully understand these disorders with current research methods.
"Right now, researchers are transplanting stem cells and neurons into people with Parkinson's and epilepsy. But we do not really understand how well that will work," she adds."With hybrid brain models, we can start to get some answers and at a faster pace than a clinical trial.
The technique, called blastocyst complementation, is similar to a technique used to create mice with human immune systems, which have proven to be powerful research tools. But until this study, the technique had not been successful in creating hybrid brains of two different species.In the team's first hybrid experiments, they examined where rat neurons appeared in the mouse brain.
"We hid a cookie in each mouse cage, and we were very surprised to see that they could find it with the rat neurons,"Baldwin says. "This suggests that adding replacement neurons isn't plug and play," Baldwin says."If you want a functional replacement, you may need to empty out dysfunctional neurons that are just sitting there, which could be the case in some neurodegenerative diseases and also in some neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and schizophrenia.
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