Laboratuvarda büyütülen beyin devreleri anestezi ritimlerini yeniden üretiyor

Researchers at UCLA have shown that human brain assembloids can reproduce the distinctive electrical pattern associated with general anesthesia. These three-dimensional models are built from reprogrammed adult cells and combine excitatory neurons, inhibitory neurons and supporting glial cells. When exposed to propofol, individual neurons became much quieter, yet the network produced broad, slow waves because many cells began changing activity together. This apparently contradictory combination is also a hallmark of anesthetised human brains. Crucially, the effect emerged in a relatively simple circuit of cortical cells without the deeper brain structures previously considered necessary. The researchers also confirmed that the response depended on biological mechanisms identified in earlier animal studies. Because experiments on living human brains cannot safely isolate and manipulate cells in this way, assembloids offer a controlled human model for linking molecular changes to large-scale rhythms. They may eventually help scientists study altered brain dynamics in conditions such as epilepsy, coma and traumatic brain injury.