Rats implanted with human brain tissue could shed new light on diseases, say researchers

[Still Waters]

A research team in the US has shown that human brain tissue implanted into rats can integrate into its host's brain, promising to give scientists an entirely new way to study brain disorders – but raising ethical questions too.

Professor Sergiu Pasca and colleagues at Stanford University in California took sesame seed-sized clumps of human brain cells called "organoids" grown in a test tube and implanted them into the brains of baby rats.

In the research, published in the journal Nature, they report that not only does the human brain tissue survive, but it incorporates itself into the rat brain, making connections with rat brain cells and being served by the rat's blood supply.

https://news.sky.com/story/lab-rats-given-human-brain-transplants-could-shed-new-light-on-diseases-say-researchers-12718826

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/oct/12/human-neurons-transplanted-into-rats-to-help-study-brain-disorders

 Details are published in Nature

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05277-w

[moonman]

A seed sized chunk is pretty big compared to the brain of a rat.

Hopefully this turns into a secret of NIMH situation and we get escaped colonies of sentient rats popping up.

Edited October 12, 2022 by moonman

[Hyperionxvii]

Do they call this new species, politicians? 

[DreadLordAvatar]

They take a sample from Marchand? 

 

[+Hammerclaw]

Sounds like a plot of a '50s B movie horror flick.

[Gumball]

Is anyone else slightly worried about how the world is turning out last few years? I'm finding it quite a weird place these days.

[openozy]

Rats are highly intelligent animals, beating uni students at mazes, which isn't much, lol. They are smart though avoiding traps and baits and it's a worry if these lab rats escape although their offspring wouldn't inherit the doctored brain, they could teach the baby rats some tricks.

[O. G. Wotasnozzle]

[Buzz_Light_Year]

 

[spartan max2]

Idk how in depth people have read this. But it's pretty insane.

Literally a clump of brain organoid was attached to a rat brain and it intergrated. Like a plant spreading roots. 

That's wild

Edited October 14, 2022 by spartan max2

[+DanL]

Great, just what we need...Smarter rats!!!

[Abramelin]

From the first link:

"Transplantation into primates is not something we would do, or encourage doing."

Meaning: they are already trying it.

 

 

[Guest chiron613]

On 10/12/2022 at 11:11 AM, Still Waters said:

A research team in the US has shown that human brain tissue implanted into rats can integrate into its host's brain, promising to give scientists an entirely new way to study brain disorders – but raising ethical questions too.

Professor Sergiu Pasca and colleagues at Stanford University in California took sesame seed-sized clumps of human brain cells called "organoids" grown in a test tube and implanted them into the brains of baby rats.

In the research, published in the journal Nature, they report that not only does the human brain tissue survive, but it incorporates itself into the rat brain, making connections with rat brain cells and being served by the rat's blood supply.

https://news.sky.com/story/lab-rats-given-human-brain-transplants-could-shed-new-light-on-diseases-say-researchers-12718826

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/oct/12/human-neurons-transplanted-into-rats-to-help-study-brain-disorders

 Details are published in Nature

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05277-w

Where are they getting the human brain cells?  They'd have to take them from a living brain.  I don't get how they could do that ethically...

I didn't find that explanation in the article.

[Tatetopa]

4 minutes ago, chiron613 said:

Where are they getting the human brain cells?  They'd have to take them from a living brain.  I don't get how they could do that ethically...

I didn't find that explanation in the article.

Volunteers?  

[Guest chiron613]

2 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

Volunteers?  

To my understanding, it would be contrary to medical ethics to remove brain material from a living person.

[Tatetopa]

2 minutes ago, chiron613 said:

To my understanding, it would be contrary to medical ethics to remove brain material from a living person.

Organ donors when they die, like kidneys and corneas and other parts?

Well you got me.  I don't know, but while we are on the subject,  I bet the rats didn't volunteer either.

[Guest chiron613]

2 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

Organ donors when they die, like kidneys and corneas and other parts?

Well you got me.  I don't know, but while we are on the subject,  I bet the rats didn't volunteer either.

Yes, organ donation is something I'd overlooked.  If they can harvest a heart, possibly they can also harvest functional brain tissue.

I knew a woman who insisted that the rats *did* volunteer, because they felt guilty for wiping out half of Europe by carrying the Bubonic Plague.  So who knows...

[Tatetopa]

3 minutes ago, chiron613 said:

I knew a woman who insisted that the rats *did* volunteer, because they felt guilty for wiping out half of Europe by carrying the Bubonic Plague.  So who knows...

Well you know if we had just given them little flea collars, we could have avoided that mess.

[Festina]

On 10/28/2022 at 4:39 PM, Guest chiron613 said:

To my understanding, it would be contrary to medical ethics to remove brain material from a living person.

Ethics and morals are different from virtues.

What is the Difference Between Ethics and Morals?

As we can see, the Oxford English Dictionary defines ethics and morals similarly, both dealing with the principles of right and wrong. The key difference is that ethics concerns rules from an external source and morals are based on each person’s own principles around right and wrong.

• Ethics – Rules of conduct in a PARTICULAR culture or group recognised by an external source or social system. For example, a medical code of ethics that medical professionals must follow.
• Morals – Principles or habits relating to right or wrong conduct, based on an individual’s own compass of right and wrong.

[emphasis mine]

According to the Torah it is perfectly ethical and moral to the Israelites to exterminate the inhabitants of the nations at their pleasure.

Deuteronomy 7

 

Quote

²² The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you. ²³ But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed. ²⁴ He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven.

We live in a sick world ruled by sick people.

[HollyDolly]

Just great, another bunch of looney tune scientists.
As if we don't have enough problems with humans, now they want to do this. Reminds me of two things.A. The episode of Rick and Morty where the family's pet dog gets some sort of helmet so they can translate what it says, and the dogs wind up taking over.
B. H.G.Wells, The Island of Dr.Moreau.It was anovel made into a movie twice. the first one in the early 1930s with Charles Laughton as Dr.Moreau, and Bela Lugosi as the Sayer of the Law, and then the later one with Marlon Brando as Dr.Moreau. Have seen both versions, and much prefer the one with Laughton and Lugosi.

[spartan max2]

2 minutes ago, HollyDolly said:

Just great, another bunch of looney tune scientists.
As if we don't have enough problems with humans, now they want to do this. Reminds me of two things.A. The episode of Rick and Morty where the family's pet dog gets some sort of helmet so they can translate what it says, and the dogs wind up taking over.
B. H.G.Wells, The Island of Dr.Moreau.It was anovel made into a movie twice. the first one in the early 1930s with Charles Laughton as Dr.Moreau, and Bela Lugosi as the Sayer of the Law, and then the later one with Marlon Brando as Dr.Moreau. Have seen both versions, and much prefer the one with Laughton and Lugosi.

We will all be thanking the loony toon scientist when they cure epilepsy, schizophrenia, or Alzheimer's. 

This like OP is how that happens. Developing a way to analyze the brain in intimate detail.