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The Impact of Human Cortical Organoids on Mice Behavior

Researchers successfully transplanted human cortical organoids into mice with underdeveloped cortex, resulting in some fascinating outcomes.

Partial Recovery Achieved

Over 85 percent of the mice integrated the human organoids, making up 92 percent of the cortex cells. While not completely replaced, the human cells formed major neuron types found in the cortex.

Human cells also established long-range connections, reaching all the way to the spinal cord, with synchronized activity spikes indicating some coordination.

Despite signs of local organization, distinct layers were not formed, indicating a lack of overall structure in the replacement cortex.

Implications for the mice show that a disorganized human cortex is better than no cortex but not as effective as a normally structured one.

Behavioral Patterns and Body Weight

Through video surveillance and machine learning classifiers, researchers observed distinct behavioral patterns in mice with different cortex conditions. Mice with humanized cortex formed a unique cluster in between normal and cortex-less mice. The same trend was noticed in body weight, with humanized cortex mice falling in between the other two groups.

Source: arstechnica.com