by Scientists of the University of Southern California-USC (USA), have designed a novel organoid model of the human brain that generates all the main cell types of the cerebellum, a region of the hindbrain composed predominantly of two types of cells necessary for movement, cognition and emotion: Granule cells and Purkinje neurons..
This is the first time that scientists have managed to grow Purkinje cells that possess the molecular and electrophysiological characteristics of functional neurons in a fully human system. These advances in organoid-directed brain modeling have been published in the journal ‘cell stem cell ‘.
“The reproducible co-development and maturation of the major cell types of the developing cerebellum in a human organoid model provides a new way to explore the underlying biology of cerebellar development and disorders and advance therapeutic interventions,” he explains. Giorgia Cuadradoresearch coordinator.
The cerebellum controls movement and plays important roles in cognitive functions, including language, spatial processing, working memory, executive functions, and emotional processing.
Purkinje cell degeneration is associated with various Neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder and cerebellar ataxia.a condition that affects muscle movement.
The organoid model creates a platform to discover new treatments for a variety of diseases.
Other neurons within the organoids (both excitatory neurons that share information and inhibitory neurons that inhibit information sharing) formed circuits and showed coordinated network activity, demonstrating that they were also functional nerve cells. Furthermore, the organoids formed human-specific progenitor cellswhich are associated with medulloblastoma, the most prevalent metastatic brain tumor in children.
child cancer
This makes organoids a potentially useful model to study and find treatments for this pediatric cancer.
With the right external cues, organoids could also be induced to form layer-like anatomical features, mirroring normal embryonic brain development.
“This study provides a physiologically relevant, fully human model system to elucidate the cell type-specific mechanisms governing cerebellar development and disease,” said Alexander Atamian, first author of the study.
