Building Better Brains

Faced with the challenge of understanding the complex human brain, researchers turn to brain tissue models grown from human induced neural stem cells (hiNSCs). To create more accurate models, researchers experimented with growing hiNSCs on extracellular matrix (ECM), which sends important signals to the developing brain. hiNSCs were grown on collagen, the most abundant ECM protein, or foetal or adult brain ECM from pigs. Neurons and their support cells, astrocytes, were generated in all cases. But neurons were best maintained on ECM, particularly foetal brain ECM. Notably, a process in brain disease reactive astrogliosis, which increases astrocyte numbers, was suppressed on ECM but not on collagen. This was detected by fluorescence microscopy as an increase in fluorescence marking astrocytes (green) in tissue grown on collagen (right) compared to on foetal (left) or adult brain ECM (middle). This brings us closer to brain models that accurately reflect human brains.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image adapted from work by Disha Sood and colleagues
• Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Scientific Reports, November 2019