We probably shouldn’t be worried about mice become so intelligent they could outsmart humans (this isn’t a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-type story). But they are getting a boost thanks to successful research out of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.
The team successfully transplanted human brain cells into the brains of newborn mice, and not only did they survive, the cells thrived, according to a paper published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Over time, mouse brain cells called glial progenitor cells (GPCs) receded and were replaced by the advancing human glial progenitor cells. A year later, “the forebrain GPC populations of implanted mice were largely, and often entirely, of human origin,” researchers noted in their paper. Not only did the mice brains accept the foreign neural matter, they used it to their advantage. In one test, according to New Scientist, the “human-brained” mice developed memories that appeared four times better than their average mouse-brain counterparts.
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“These were whopping effects,” Dr. Steven A. Goldman, the lead researcher on the project, told New Scientist. “We can say they were statistically and significantly smarter than control mice.”
This is not science fiction. The human cells that were transplanted totally replaced the mice cells to the point that they soon were “generating mice with a humanized glial progenitor population.” Goldman made sure to reassure us that they aren’t half-human half-mouse, but this is a remarkable new area of progress.
“This does not provide the animals with additional capabilities that could in any way be ascribed or perceived as specifically human,” Goldman said, noting that the mouse brains’ neurons were still mouse neurons, even if the glial cells were human. “It’s still a mouse.”
[Photo from flickr user GLOBAL PANORAMA]
