Studying the nervous system of higher animals is an extremely difficult task. Especially when it comes to researching the human brain. It is very rare to obtain the required material. Recently, however, neurophysiologists have learned quite well how to handle stem cells, and it is thanks to this that a group of experts from Tufts University in Massachusetts has grown one of the most advanced biological neural networks to date.
According to the editorial office of ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, the new work is based on the previous one, during which scientists, studying the neurons of rodents, have successfully grown a 3D model of the brain. To do this, they used induced pluripotent stem cells, which made it possible to create a variety of tissue cultures, including not only ordinary neurons, but also astroglial cells, which, interacting with each other, formed a neural network. According to one of the authors of the work, David Kaplan,
Artificially grown cells and tissues of a neural network.
The new approach is based on the creation of a "scaffold" in the form of fibrin and fibrinogen filaments along which the cells are distributed. This makes it possible to directly integrate pluripotent stem cells into a three-dimensional construct, bypassing the early stages of neural differentiation, thus obtaining long-lived cultures.
The new method for creating neural networks can be used not only for a more detailed study of the neurophysiological characteristics of the organism, but also for identifying biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases at early stages, which, in turn, will contribute to early diagnosis and the development of new treatment methods. With further improvement of the technology, experts do not exclude the possibility of creating target cells for drugs against neurodegenerative diseases of the brain. And this will further accelerate the production of drugs.
Vladimir Kuznetsov
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