Writing Assignment 4
Dissemination of scientific information, more specifically the proper dissemination of such information, is integral to the scientific community and society as a whole. Oftentimes, popular press summarizes research studies to ensure that information reaches the general public. However, it is essential that the accuracy of popular press summaries be evaluated continuously. No matter the intention behind the summarization, mistakes can be made, or understanding can be muddled; therefore, it is important to determine the integrity of popular press articles focusing on scientific research.
The Washington Post published an article on October 12, 2022, written by Mark Johnson entitled Transplant of human brain tissue into rats could help study autism, other disorders. This article focused on summarizing a seven-year study led by Sergiu P. Pașca at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. The article by Mr. Johnson explains that the study transplanted lab grown, human brain tissue cells into the brain of two-to-three-day old rat pups, in hopes of perfecting a technique that could aid the research of conditions such as autism, epilepsy, schizophrenia, and intellectual disabilities (Johnson M., 2022).
The lab began preparations for research by consulting ethicists and experts on animal welfare. However, there was generally no concern the animals would become ‘human’ due to the small portion of transplant size; nor were any anxiety, pain, or seizures anticipated or observed during the duration of the experiments (Johnson M., 2022). Next, researchers used pre-existing techniques to change skin cells into cells comparable to embryonic stem cells. The embryonic stem cells were then guided through maturation to become organoids, clumps of cells, which, in this case, resembled the cerebral cortex. It is important to note, the first organoid was created in 2008 by Yoshiki Sasai, however, the organoids had no vascular system and were thus unable to survive (Johnson M., 2022). The Stanford experiments addressed this problem by injecting one-fifth of an inch of the human organoid directly into the developing rat’s brain. Since the human tissue was present during the maturation, the rat’s tissue was pushed aside and the human tissue, connected via the thalamus, became vascularized, fully incorporated, and eventually expanded to be roughly one-third of one hemisphere (Johnson M., 2022).
Due to the success of human brain tissue integration, the experiment took the research a step further by comparing the difference between healthy brain cells and those affected by Timothy syndrome. Timothy syndrome is an incredibly rare disease, affecting less than 100 people across the world, which affects the heart, physical appearance, and nervous and immune systems of those diagnosed (Cleveland Clinic). The researchers took Timothy syndrome cells through the same process to create an organoid and then injected it into the rat’s brain. For the most accurate results, they did this in the brain of the same rat so one hemisphere contained typical human cells and the other contained Timothy syndrome affected cells. The results taken after five to six months of growth showed that the Timothy syndrome cells where much smaller and did not have the same electrical activity as the other human brain cells. This shows how well the application can be applied to research of conditions affecting the brain.
Maturation and circuit integration of transplanted human cortical organoids is the primary research article written by Revah O. et al., describing the research summarized above. It goes greatly into more depth and detail than the article written by Mr. Johnson, however this is to be expected when comparing popular sources to primary sources. Despite the disparity in detail, the primary article supports the statements in the Washington Post article. More specifically, the abstract, methods, results, and discussion match those described in the popular source.
References
Johnson, M. Transplant of human brain tissue into rats could help study autism, other disorders. The Washington Post; https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/10/12/brain-tissue-rats-stanford/ (2022).
Revah, O. et al. Maturation and circuit integration of transplanted human cortical organoids. Nature 610, 319-326 (2022).
Timothy Syndrome: Symptoms, causes & treatment. Cleveland Clinic; https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22698-timothy-syndrome. (Accessed: 12th October 2022)
By: Joy Brewer
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