Edit: La Yan Peach
If the brain is 100% developed, "superbody" or become a reality? Recently, Chinese scientists created the world's first atlas of the regeneration of the salamander brain, and the research results appeared on the cover of Science.
Can the human brain really only develop 10%?
In the movie "Superbody", the heroine Lucy accidentally hit and bumped to develop 100% of the brain potential.
With the rapid evolution of her body, she has mastered more and more superpowers: mastering foreign languages in an instant, using brain waves to move objects through the air, and arbitrarily changing the shape of objects...
One possibility for brain neurons to continue to develop is that our brain cells have the ability to regenerate.
At present, the only creature in the world that can regenerate the brain is the dull and cute "god beast" salamander.
But can humans regenerate their brains?
Recently, the team led by BGI Life Sciences completed the first spatio-temporal map of salamander brain regeneration, revealing how brain injuries heal themselves.
This is the world's first spatio-temporal atlas of brain regeneration, and the results of the research have been on the cover of Science on September 2.
The first spatiotemporal atlas of brain regeneration
When it comes to regenerative abilities, it's no surprise that lizards regenerate their tails.
In addition, bat wings, zebrafish hearts, shark teeth, starfish limbs... all can regenerate.
Only the ability of biological "brains" to regenerate fascinated scientists.
This Single-cell Stereo-seq reveals induced progenitor cells involved in axolotl brain regeneration introduces us to the spatiotemporal map of salamander brain regeneration.
Address of the paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abp9444
To study brain regeneration, we must find a suitable model to study.
In the end, the team chose the only organism in the world that can regenerate the brain, the Mexican blunt salamander.
It is a type of salamander, also known as a "hexagonal dinosaur", which can regenerate not only limbs, tail, eyes, skin and liver, but also the brain.
Development and regeneration of salamander telencephalon
Isn't this something that scientists can use as an important model organism to study the problems associated with regeneration?
Here we have to mention the key technology of this research - spatiotemporal omics technology (Stereo-seq).
With this technology, scientists can take pictures of the 6 important periods of salamander brain development that can see the changing state of cells and molecules, forming a spatial-temporal map of salamander brain development.
Brain regeneration requires coordinating complex responses in time- and region-specific ways. Identifying the cell types and molecules involved in this process will advance scientists' understanding of brain regeneration.
However, progress in this area has been hampered by the limited regenerative capacity of the mammalian brain and the incomplete understanding of the mechanisms of the regenerative process at the cellular and molecular levels. The Mexican blunt-mouthed salamander mentioned above can regenerate damaged appendages and multiple internal organs, including the brain.
As a result, this salamander has become an ideal model for scientists to study brain regeneration.
To understand the mechanisms of brain regeneration, scientists also need research tools that can enable large-scale data acquisition and analysis to simultaneously decode complex cellular and molecular responses.
First, scientists believe that comparing brain regeneration and developmental processes in studies could help provide a whole new understanding of the nature of brain regeneration.
So the team excised a small portion of the axon animal's left-end lateral palate and collected tissue samples from multiple stages of the regeneration process. Tissue samples of the axon animal telencephalon at multiple stages of development were then collected.
Next, the researchers used stereo-seq techniques with high definition and large field of view to generate single-cell resolution spatial transcriptomics data from slices covering both hemispheres of the axial-tailed lizard telence. Cell type annotation, cell spatial organization, gene activity dynamics, and cell state transitions were analyzed, and the mechanism of injury-induced regeneration was studied compared with these cellular properties during development.
Using Stereo-seq, the scientists generated a set of spatial transcriptome data for telencephalic slices that covered six developmental stages and seven injury-induced regeneration phases of salamanders.
The single-cell resolution data allowed the researchers to identify 33 cell types present during development and 28 cell types involved in regeneration, including different types of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, as well as several subtypes of ectoderm cells.
In terms of development, the data revealed a primitive type of epithelial cell that may produce three subpopulations of adult epithelial cells that are distributed in different regions of the ventricular region, with different molecular characteristics and potential functions.
In terms of regeneration, the research team found a subset of epithelial cells that may originate from local resident epithelial cells activated by injury. This subset of cells may then proliferate to cover the wound area, and then replenish the lost neurons by transitioning to the state of intermediate progenitor cells, immature neurons, and eventually mature neurons.
When comparing the cellular and molecular dynamics of the axon animal telencephalon between development and regeneration, the scientists found that injury-induced epithelial cells were similar to developmentally specific epithelial cells in terms of their transcriptome status.
At the same time, the research team also observed that the regeneration of the axon animal telencephalon showed a similar pattern of neurogenesis in development in terms of molecular cascade and potential cell line conversion, which indicates that brain regeneration partially reproduced the developmental process.
Spatial transcriptome data highlight the cellular and molecular characteristics of the axon animal telencephalon during regeneration caused by development and injury. Further characterization of activation and functional regulation of epithelial cells may yield insights into improved regenerative capacity of the mammalian brain.
The research team's study of the single-cell spatial transcriptome of the tetrapod telencephalon provides useful data for further research into developmental, regenerative and evolutionary brain biology.
Brain regeneration becomes a reality?
You know, the human brain has 86 billion neurons, and they are connected to each other.
Dr. Yin Gu, co-corresponding author of the paper and deputy director of BGI-Research, said,
Using salamanders as model organisms, we have identified key cell types in the brain regeneration process. This discovery will provide new ideas and guidance for regenerative medicine in the mammalian nervous system.
Therefore, a major goal of regenerative medicine in the central nervous system is not only to reconstruct the spatial structure of neurons, but also to reconstruct specific patterns of connections within their tissues.
In future studies, it is important to reconstruct the 3D structure of the brain and understand the systemic responses of various regions of the brain during regeneration.
Scientists have long dreamed of mapping the structure of the brain's entire neural network to understand how the nervous system works.
For example, Google first reconstructed a 3D model of the neurons of the fruit fly brain in 2019, followed by the publication of the fruit fly "half brain" link group the following year.
Now, they have published a dataset on imaging the human brain.
Through this dataset, people can see 130 million synapses, tens of thousands of neuron samples, can help people understand the brain's 3D structure.
In addition to salamanders, scientists have used spatiotemporal omics techniques to map for the first time the embryonic development or organs of four model organisms: mice, zebrafish, fruit flies, and Arabidopsis thaliana.
Currently, the results have been published in Cell and its subsidiary, Cognitive Cell.
For the study of brain regeneration, netizens are optimistic about the future development of this.
Resources:
https://www.zhihu.com/question/551330916
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/2nc81ul7Q1oCJUGbHPnqOg