Immune response in autism, revealed by in-vivo studies of xenotransplanted human brain organoids

Abstract

Brain organoids facilitate the study of cell-cell interactions in a human-brain-like micro-environment but cannot form the primary immune cells of the central nervous system, microglia, on their own. Researchers have now transplanted forebrain organoids, colonized by stem-cell-derived microglial cells, into mice brains. And indeed, the stem-cell-derived microglial cells developed human-microglia-like transcriptomic and functional characteristics. This made it possible, for the first time, to study in-vivo immune responses in organoids derived from stem cell lines from patients with ASD and macrocephaly.