Modeling traumatic brain injury with human brain organoids.
Dennis Jgamadze, Victoria E Johnson, John A Wolf, D Kacy Cullen, Hongjun Song, Guo-Li Ming, Douglas H Smith, H Isaac Chen
Author Information
Dennis Jgamadze: Center for Brain Injury and Repair, Department of Neurosurgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Victoria E Johnson: Center for Brain Injury and Repair, Department of Neurosurgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
John A Wolf: Center for Brain Injury and Repair, Department of Neurosurgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
D Kacy Cullen: Center for Brain Injury and Repair, Department of Neurosurgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Hongjun Song: Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Guo-Li Ming: Department of Neuroscience, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Douglas H Smith: Center for Brain Injury and Repair, Department of Neurosurgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
H Isaac Chen: Center for Brain Injury and Repair, Department of Neurosurgery, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a prominent public health concern despite several decades of attempts to develop therapies for the associated neurological and cognitive deficits. Effective models of this condition are imperative for better defining its pathophysiology and testing therapeutics. Human brain organoids are stem cell-derived neural tissues that recapitulate many of the steps of normal neurodevelopment, resulting in the reproduction of a substantial degree of brain architecture. Organoids are highly relevant to clinical conditions because of their human nature and three-dimensional tissue structure, yet they are easier to manipulate and interrogate experimentally than animals. Thus, they have the potential to serve as a novel platform for studying TBI. In this article, we discuss available models of TBI, active areas of inquiry on brain organoids, and how these two concepts could be merged.
