Published: Saturday, May 18, 2020
Scientists have finally discovered a way to defrost frozen brain tissue without damaging the tissue. Scientists have developed a technique that allows brain tissue to be frozen, thawed and still maintain its normal functionality.
This breakthrough by the team of Zhicheng SHAO at Fudan University, Shanghai, China could revolutionize the study neurological conditions. Researchers published their findings in Cell Reports Methods.
The team claims that it has grown self-organizing samples of brain tissue, also known as organoids from human embryonic cells over a period of three weeks. This allowed the development and growth neural stem cells and neurons. The team then tested different chemical compounds to see which combination would help keep the human brain tissue frozen alive and allow growth after thawing.
The combination that was most effective consisted of methylcellulose with ethylene glycol and DMSO. Researchers call it MEDY and suspect that it interferes with a path which would otherwise cause cell death. This allows the tissue to be frozen and thawed safely.
Tech. Entertainment. Science. Science. Subscribe to the latest tech and entertainment news.
I have read the Privacy Notice and the Terms of Service before signing up.
Image: The X-ray image of the human head closeup Image source: merydolla/Adobe To test the efficacy of MEDY the team performed a series experiments on brain organoids ranging in age from 28 days to more than 100. The team found that the thawed brain organoids closely resembled those of their unfrozen counterparts in terms of appearance, growth and function even after 18 months of being frozen using MEDY. The results were similar across different frozen brain tissue samples representing different brain regions.
Source: BGR