2023-06-20 13:04:58
Laboratory animal research for medical scientific research can count on increasing social criticism. In addition, researchers are increasingly seeing why an animal experiment has a limited predictive value for the outcome of a follow-up study in patients, says Maastricht UMC+. Among other things, 3D printing and the use of AI models are already reducing the use of laboratory animals for drug testing, for example.
Mini-brain still in its early stages
Several research groups worldwide are making mini-organs (organoids) from human stem cells for use in medical-scientific research. However, the human brain is still so complex in structure and function that making a mini-brain from human stem cells is still in its early stages of development.
Maastricht UMC+, Eindhoven University of Technology and the LUMC (Leiden) have now jointly developed a concept in which brain tissue outside the body remains active. This model consists of three layers:
The basis is a printed circuit board with 120 electrodes (contact points). Stem cells were grown on this plate, which grew into a layer of nerve cells through stimulation. These nerve cells must make contact with the electrodes so that electrical activity can be measured. Finally, human brain tissue that was surgically removed during epilepsy treatment was placed directly on the nerve cell layer. The idea was that the nerve cell layer between the brain tissue and the electrodes would function as a biological link and could transmit activity in the brain tissue to the electrodes.
Possibilities brain biopsy-on-a-chip
The researchers kept this brain biopsy-on-a-chip model in culture. It still showed epileptic activity after six days. The Maastricht brain researcher Dr. Govert Hoogland therefore sees great potential in the new concept.
“New experiments will have to show whether this is a useful model, but our approach potentially provides a clinically relevant alternative to animal-free brain research into epilepsy, for example. It thus opens the way to evaluate new, personalized treatments.”
Off Road-subsidie
Science financier ZonMw has awarded an Off Road grant to Jean-Philippe Frimat for the research. The Off Road program gives young researchers room for pioneering unconventional research in (bio)medical and/or health care sciences as research area(s). The aim is to challenge young (bio)medical and health researchers to achieve new insights and unexpected breakthroughs in medical and/or health research.
Dr. JP Frimat and Dr. R. Luttge, research group Neuro-Nanoscale Engineering, division Microsystems (TU/e), developed the idea and the culture materials. Dr. JP Frimat currently works at the Department of Human Genetics and Neurology (LUMC). Dr. O. Schijns, Dr. J. Dings, Dr. K. Rijkers and Dr. G. Hoogland, Department of Neurosurgery and School for Mental Health and Neuroscience (MUMC+) have applied the idea and the culture materials in human brain tissue. PhD candidate M. Hu and Prof. A. van Maagdenberg, Department of Human Genetics and Neurology (LUMC), have analyzed the measured activity.
Het onderzoeksartikel Spontaneous Epileptic Recordings from hiPSC-Derived Cortical Neurons Cultured with a Human Epileptic Brain Biopsy on a Multi Electrode Array is recent verschenen in Applied Sciences.
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