Brain News
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, explored how traumatic brain injury (TBI) changes the entire neural circuit across the brain. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.
The Study
The researchers devised a process called “iDISCO” that recreates a fully intact brain that can be illuminated with lasers and imaged in 3D with specialized microscopes.
They then used the process to create brain maps across the entire brain. However, in some cases, they focused on the inhibitory neurons, the hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex.
Furthermore, to understand if artificially implanted inhibitory neurons can restore brain circuits in an injured brain, the researchers carried out interneuron transplantation in mice’s brains.
The Findings
The results revealed that traumatic brain injury changes the entire brain. In fact, TBI alters the cross-talk between different cells and brain regions. This explains why most people with TBI are left with lifelong physical, cognitive and emotional disabilities.
The researchers further found that enticing a brain to repair the lost connections via interneuron transplantation can be partially successful. They are enthusiastic that these findings can pave the way for the development of cell therapy for people with TBI, disorders of memory, and epilepsy.
One of the lead researchers, Robert Hunt, elaborated: “Our study is a very important addition to our understanding of how inhibitory progenitors can one day be used therapeutically for the treatment of TBI, epilepsy or other brain disorders.”
To Know More You May Refer To
Frankowski, J. C., Tierno, A., Pavani, S., Cao, Q., Lyon, D. C., & Hunt, R. F. (2022). Brain-wide reconstruction of inhibitory circuits after traumatic brain injury. Nature communications, 13(1), 3417. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31072-2