Mice performed better on learning tasks, such as navigating mazes, after receiving injections of human brain cells, whereas mice that received either no transplants or mouse brain cells showed no such improvement.
Steven Goldman and Maiken Nedergaard at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York and their colleagues injected the brains of newborn mice with glial precursor cells, which go on to provide metabolic support to neurons and are thought to influence neuronal function.
When injected into the mice, the human precursor cells matured and integrated into mouse neural networks. Human glia strengthened neuronal signalling in mouse brains by secreting the cell-signalling protein TNF-α, which is thought to increase the number of receptors for the neurotransmitter glutamate. Such experiments, the authors suggest, can be used to explore the role of glia in human cognition and brain disease.
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Human cells boost mouse brains. Nature 495, 145 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/495145a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/495145a
