Mouse brain damage repaired with transplants … – France Soir

This is a world first and a promising advance for humans. A team of Franco-Belgian researchers managed to repair the damaged cortex of mice Laboratories with transplants of neurons, according to results of a study published in early March in the journal Neurons .

The cortex is a particularly complex area of ​​the brain, divided into several parts (visual cortex, auditory cortex …). So far, the cortex when a person suffered damage, it was impossible to repair it. The patient had no other choice but to follow a long rehabilitation, hoping that his brain is an alternative circuit to perform the same functions.

Realizing that some areas of the brain trying to repair itself in the event injury, the researchers had the idea to stimulate this self-repair. They therefore grafted visual neural cells obtained by culturing in vitro embryonic stem cells of adult mice in which the cortex was damaged at the head of the view area.

“ Our approach is to try to graft healthy neurons to replace the injured area of ​​the brain. This is called a cell therapy by transplantation, ” said Afsaneh Gaillard, professor at the University of Poitiers and responsible for Inserm research team that is part of the project.

A year after the start of the tests, the visual cortex had begun to function normally in 61% animals that received a transplant. In contrast, tumors and masses of undifferentiated cells appeared in others.

This discovery is breathtaking. Maybe is it can one day be repaired the human brain, replacing neurons damaged by stroke or diseases like Alzheimer’s, for example? “ Several teams around the world are trying to see the possibility of reparation in different types of lesions. It has been shown in animals, it is possible to repair traumatic injuries, or those caused by Parkinson’s disease. These are current research topics and research trying to see the feasibility of this approach in other diseases, “indicates Afsaneh Gaillard.

But be careful not to catch fire too fast: these grafts are still far from being applicable to humans. For now, the tests were carried out on mice and nothing says they can be held in the same way in humans. Because these studies have shown that the human brain is more complicated than what was assumed, consisting of hundreds of different types of neurons. So, to fix a specific area, it would make corresponding neurons. “ The difficulty is to obtain appropriate neurons to repair the visual cortex and see the long-term functionality of the cells and check for tumor formation, ” Afsaneh further explains Gaillard.