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Scientists have transplanted human brain cells into the brains of baby rats, where the cells grew and formed connections.
科学家将人类脑细胞移植到幼鼠的大脑中，这些脑细胞在幼鼠的大脑中生长并形成连接。
The research is part of an effort to study human brain development and diseases affecting this most complex of organs.
这项研究是研究人类大脑发育和影响这一最复杂器官的疾病所付出的努力的一部分。
Dr. Sergiu Pasca of Stanford University in California was the lead writer of a study describing the work.
加州斯坦福大学的塞尔吉奥·帕斯卡博士是描述这项工作的一项研究的主要作者。
It appeared recently in the publication Nature.
这项研究结果最近发表在《自然》杂志上。
“Many disorders such as autism and schizophrenia are likely uniquely human,” Pasca said.
帕斯卡说：“自闭症和精神分裂症等许多疾病很可能是人类独有的。”
But the human brain has not been very easy to study.
但人类的大脑并不容易被研究。
Research that does not involve taking tissue out of the human brain is a “promising” area for trying to deal with these conditions, Pasca added.
帕斯卡还说，不涉及从人脑中取出组织的研究是试图应对这些疾病的一个“有前途的”领域。
The research builds upon the team’s earlier work creating brain “organoids.”
这项研究建立在该团队早期创造大脑“类器官”的工作基础上。
These organoids are very small structures similar to human organs.
这些类器官是与人体器官相似的非常小的结构。
Organoids have been made to represent organs such as the liver, kidneys and prostate.
制造类器官是为了替代肝脏、肾脏和前列腺等器官。
To make the brain organoids, Stanford University scientists changed human skin cells into stem cells.
为了制造大脑类器官，斯坦福大学的科学家将人类皮肤细胞转变为干细胞。
They then caused the stem cells to become several kinds of brain cells.
然后，他们使干细胞变成几种脑细胞。
Those cells then grew in number to form organoids that resemble the cerebral cortex, the human brain’s outermost layer.
之后这些细胞数量不断增加，从而形成类似于大脑皮层的类器官，大脑皮层是人类大脑的最外层。
The cerebral cortex is linked to memory, thinking, learning, reasoning and emotions.
大脑皮层与记忆、思考、学习、推理和情绪有关。
Scientists transplanted those organoids into baby rats that were two to three days old.
科学家将这些类器官移植到两到三天大的幼鼠体内。
At that age, brain connections are still forming.
在这个年龄段，大脑连接仍在形成。
The organoids grew so that they eventually occupied a third of the hemisphere of the rat’s brain where they were implanted.
类器官不断生长，最终占据了被植入类器官的老鼠大脑半球的三分之一。
Neurons from the organoids formed working connections with the brain.
类器官中的神经元与大脑形成了工作连接。
Human neurons have been transplanted into rodents before, but in adult animals, usually mice.
人类神经元以前也曾被移植到啮齿动物体内，但那是成年动物，通常是老鼠。
Pasca, who is a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, said this is the first time these organoids have been placed into the brains of baby rats.
斯坦福大学医学院教授帕斯卡说，这是第一次将这些类器官移植到幼鼠的大脑中。
To examine how the idea might be useful for studying human health, scientists transplanted organoids into both sides of a rat’s brain.
为了检验这一想法对研究人类健康是否有用，科学家将类器官移植到老鼠大脑的两侧。
One side had organoids created from a healthy person’s cells and the other side had cells of a person with Timothy syndrome, a rare genetic condition linked with heart problems and autism.
一侧是用健康人的细胞制成的类器官，另一侧是用患有蒂莫西综合征的人的细胞制成的类器官，蒂莫西综合征是一种与心脏问题和自闭症有关的罕见遗传疾病。
Five to six months later, they saw effects of the disease in the activity of the neurons.
五到六个月后，他们看到了这种疾病对神经元活动的影响。
There were differences in the two sides’ electrical activity, and the neurons from the person with Timothy syndrome were much smaller and did not grow as many extensions that pick up signals from nearby neurons.
老鼠大脑两侧的电活动存在差异，患有蒂莫西综合征的人的神经元要小得多，也没有长出那么多从附近神经元接收信号的延伸物。
The researchers, whose study was paid for partly by the National Institutes of Health, said they could do the same kinds of experiments using organoids made from the cells of people with disorders such as autism or schizophrenia.
研究人员表示，他们可以使用自闭症或精神分裂症等疾病患者的细胞制成的类器官来进行同样类型的实验。该研究的部分资金由美国国立卫生研究院提供。
Such studies could help them learn new things about how these conditions affect the brain.
此类研究可以帮助他们了解有关这些疾病是如何影响大脑的新信息。
Dr. Flora Vaccarino of Yale University said the study moves the field forward.
耶鲁大学的弗洛拉·瓦卡里诺博士表示，这项研究推动了该领域的发展。
“It’s extremely impressive what they do here in terms of what these cells can actually show us in terms of their advanced development … in the rat,” said Vaccarino, who was not involved with the study.
瓦卡里诺没有参与这项研究，他说：“就这些细胞向我们展示的它们在老鼠体内的高级发育而言，他们所做的一切令人印象非常深刻。”
I’m John Russell.
约翰·拉塞尔为您播报。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
