美国宾夕法尼亚大学Han-Chiao Isaac Chen团队近期取得重要工作进展，他们研究发现了人前脑类器官与受损成年大鼠视觉系统的结构和功能整合。相关研究成果2023年2月2日在线发表于《细胞—干细胞》杂志上。

据介绍，由人类多能干细胞产生的类脑器官是一种很有前景的大脑修复方法。它们获得了大脑的许多结构特征，并提高了患者匹配修复的可能性。在受伤的成年哺乳动物大脑中，这些实体是否能与宿主大脑网络整合目前尚不清楚。

研究人员提供了结构和功能证据，证明人类大脑类器官在移植到视觉皮层的大损伤腔后能成功地与成年大鼠视觉系统整合。基于病毒的跨突触追踪揭示了类器官神经元和宿主视网膜之间的多突触通路，以及移植物和视觉系统其他区域之间的相互连接。宿主动物的视觉刺激引起类器官神经元的反应，包括定向选择性。

总之，这些结果证明了人类大脑类器官在插入大损伤腔后具有复杂功能的能力，提出了一种在皮质损伤后恢复功能的翻译策略。

附：英文原文

Title: Structural and functional integration of human forebrain organoids with the injured adult rat visual system

Author: Dennis Jgamadze, James T. Lim, Zhijian Zhang, Paul M. Harary, James Germi, Kobina Mensah-Brown, Christopher D. Adam, Ehsan Mirzakhalili, Shikha Singh, Jiahe Ben Gu, Rachel Blue, Mehek Dedhia, Marissa Fu, Fadi Jacob, Xuyu Qian, Kimberly Gagnon, Matthew Sergison, Oceane Fruchet, Imon Rahaman, Huadong Wang, Fuqiang Xu, Rui Xiao, Diego Contreras, John A. Wolf, Hongjun Song, Guo-li Ming, Han-Chiao Isaac Chen

Issue&Volume: 2023/02/02

Abstract: Brain organoids created from human pluripotent stem cells represent a promising approach for brain repair. They acquire many structural features of the brain and raise the possibility of patient-matched repair. Whether these entities can integrate with host brain networks in the context of the injured adult mammalian brain is not well established. Here, we provide structural and functional evidence that human brain organoids successfully integrate with the adult rat visual system after transplantation into large injury cavities in the visual cortex. Virus-based trans-synaptic tracing reveals a polysynaptic pathway between organoid neurons and the host retina and reciprocal connectivity between the graft and other regions of the visual system. Visual stimulation of host animals elicits responses in organoid neurons, including orientation selectivity. These results demonstrate the ability of human brain organoids to adopt sophisticated function after insertion into large injury cavities, suggesting a translational strategy to restore function after cortical damage.

DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2023.01.004

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/fulltext/S1934-5909(23)00004-8