Scientists boost learning ability of mice by injecting human brain cells in them

According to a recent research conducted by scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center human brains feature different kind of cells called astrocytes that can be used to boost the learning capabilities of other living things such as mice. The study was conducted on a mice in which it showed signs of fast learning abilities than usual.

The astrocytes cells were previously considered relatively unimportant but now it seems like that viewpoint is going to change significantly. Scientists injected the astrocytes cells into mice’s brain and then tested its performance against the mice that didn’t went through this process. They did this process with a group of mice. Scientists gave a six month maturation period to each treated mice before determining whether the injection of human brain cells made any changes to their behavior or not. In the tests that took place after six months the mice that were treated and had human brain’s astrocytes cells performed significantly better than their counterparts. They were able to learnt their way around a maze faster than other mice that didn’t had the human brain’s cell injection affect. They were also able to associate a distinctive sound with an electric shock.

This particular study was published in the Cell Stem Cell journal earlier this month and has already showed a huge potential by making the astrocytes cells important than they were considered before this study.

Now scientists are hoping to find more unique functions of different components of the amazing human brain and they also hope that they will be able to explore a new model that would allow them to investigate a range of diseases and see how these cells can play a part in curing them.

The full details about his study are available at the Cell Stem cell journal here.