DISAMPING KANAN INI.............
PLEASE USE ........ "TRANSLATE MACHINE" .. GOOGLE TRANSLATE BESIDE RIGHT THIS
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Bioengineers
menciptakan jaringan otak-seperti 3-D fungsional: jaringan tetap hidup selama beberapa bulan
Bioengineers
telah menciptakan jaringan otak-seperti tiga dimensi yang berfungsi seperti dan
memiliki struktural mirip dengan jaringan di dalam otak tikus dan yang dapat
tetap hidup di laboratorium selama lebih dari dua bulan. Jaringan bisa
memberikan model yang unggul untuk mempelajari fungsi normal otak serta cedera
dan penyakit, dan dapat membantu dalam pengembangan pengobatan baru untuk
disfungsi otak............
Bioengineers create functional 3-D brain-like tissue: Tissue kept alive
for months
Date:
August 11,
2014
Source:
National Institute of Biomedical
Imaging and Bioengineering
Summary:
Bioengineers have created three-dimensional brain-like
tissue that functions like and has structural features similar to tissue in the
rat brain and that can be kept alive in the lab for more than two months. The
tissue could provide a superior model for studying normal brain function as
well as injury and disease, and could assist in the development of new
treatments for brain dysfunction.
.....................
Bioengineers have created three-dimensional brain-like
tissue that functions like and has structural features similar to tissue in the
rat brain and that can be kept alive in the lab for more than two months.
As a first
demonstration of its potential, researchers used the brain-like tissue to study
chemical and electrical changes that occur immediately following traumatic
brain injury and, in a separate experiment, changes that occur in response to a
drug. The tissue could provide a superior model for studying normal brain
function as well as injury and disease, and could assist in the development of
new treatments for brain dysfunction.
The
brain-like tissue was developed at the Tissue Engineering Resource Center at
Tufts University, Boston, which is funded by the National Institute of
Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) to establish innovative
biomaterials and tissue engineering models. David Kaplan, Ph.D., Stern Family
Professor of Engineering at Tufts University is director of the center and led
the research efforts to develop the tissue.
Currently,
scientists grow neurons in petri dishes to study their behavior in a
controllable environment. Yet neurons grown in two dimensions are unable to
replicate the complex structural organization of brain tissue, which consists
of segregated regions of grey and white matter. In the brain, grey matter is
comprised primarily of neuron cell bodies, while white matter is made up of
bundles of axons, which are the projections neurons send out to connect with
one another. Because brain injuries and diseases often affect these areas
differently, models are needed that exhibit grey and white matter
compartmentalization.
Recently,
tissue engineers have attempted to grow neurons in 3D gel environments, where
they can freely establish connections in all directions. Yet these gel-based
tissue models don't live long and fail to yield robust, tissue-level function.
This is because the extracellular environment is a complex matrix in which
local signals establish different neighborhoods that encourage distinct cell
growth and/or development and function. Simply providing the space for neurons
to grow in three dimensions is not sufficient.
Now, in the
Aug. 11th early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, a group of bioengineers report that they have
successfully created functional 3D brain-like tissue that exhibits grey-white
matter compartmentalization and can survive in the lab for more than two
months.
"This
work is an exceptional feat," said Rosemarie Hunziker, Ph.D., program
director of Tissue Engineering at NIBIB. "It combines a deep understand of
brain physiology with a large and growing suite of bioengineering tools to
create an environment that is both necessary and sufficient to mimic brain
function."
The key to
generating the brain-like tissue was the creation of a novel composite
structure that consisted of two biomaterials with different physical
properties: a spongy scaffold made out of silk protein and a softer,
collagen-based gel. The scaffold served as a structure onto which neurons could
anchor themselves, and the gel encouraged axons to grow through it.
To achieve
grey-white matter compartmentalization, the researchers cut the spongy scaffold
into a donut shape and populated it with rat neurons. They then filled the
middle of the donut with the collagen-based gel, which subsequently permeated
the scaffold. In just a few days, the neurons formed functional networks around
the pores of the scaffold, and sent longer axon projections through the center
gel to connect with neurons on the opposite side of the donut. The result was a
distinct white matter region (containing mostly cellular projections, the
axons) formed in the center of the donut that was separate from the surrounding
grey matter (where the cell bodies were concentrated).
Over a
period of several weeks, the researchers conducted experiments to determine the
health and function of the neurons growing in their 3D brain-like tissue and to
compare them with neurons grown in a collagen gel-only environment or in a 2D
dish.
The
researchers found that the neurons in the 3D brain-like tissues had higher
expression of genes involved in neuron growth and function. In addition, the
neurons grown in the 3D brain-like tissue maintained stable metabolic activity
for up to five weeks, while the health of neurons grown in the gel-only
environment began to deteriorate within 24 hours. In regard to function,
neurons in the 3D brain-like tissue exhibited electrical activity and
responsiveness that mimic signals seen in the intact brain, including a typical
electrophysiological response pattern to a neurotoxin.
Because the
3D brain-like tissue displays physical properties similar to rodent brain
tissue, the researchers sought to determine whether they could use it to study
traumatic brain injury. To simulate a traumatic brain injury, a weight was
dropped onto the brain-like tissue from varying heights. The researchers then
recorded changes in the neurons' electrical and chemical activity, which proved
similar to what is ordinarily observed in animal studies of traumatic brain
injury.
Kaplan says
the ability to study traumatic injury in a tissue model offers advantages over
animal studies, in which measurements are delayed while the brain is being
dissected and prepared for experiments.
"With
the system we have, you can essentially track the tissue response to traumatic
brain injury in real time," said Kaplan. "Most importantly, you can
also start to track repair and what happens over longer periods of time."
Kaplan
emphasized the importance of the brain-like tissue's longevity for studying
other brain disorders. "The fact that we can maintain this tissue for
months in the lab means we can start to look at neurological diseases in ways
that you can't otherwise because you need long timeframes to study some of the
key brain diseases," he said.
Hunziker
added, "Good models enable solid hypotheses that can be thoroughly tested.
The hope is that use of this model could lead to an acceleration of therapies
for brain dysfunction as well as offer a better way to study normal brain
physiology."
Kaplan and
his team are looking into how they can make their tissue model more brain-like.
In this recent report, the researchers demonstrated that they can modify their
donut scaffold so that it consists of six concentric rings, each able to be
populated with different types of neurons. Such an arrangement would mimic the
six layers of the human brain cortex, in which different types of neurons
exist.
As part of
the funding agreement for the Tissue Engineering Resource Center, NIBIB
requires that new technologies generated at the center be shared with the
greater biomedical research community.
"We
look forward to building collaborations with other labs that want to build on
this tissue model," said Kaplan.
This work
was supported by NIH's National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and
Bioengineering under award #EB002520
Story
Source:
The above
story is based on materials provided by National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and
Bioengineering. Note:
Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal
Reference:
- Min D. Tang-Schomer, James D. White, Lee W. Tien, L. Ian Schmitt, Thomas M. Valentin, Daniel J. Graziano, Amy M. Hopkins, Fiorenzo G. Omenetto, Philip G. Haydon, and David L. Kaplan. Bioengineered functional brain-like cortical tissue. PNAS, August 11, 2014 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1324214111
