At POSTECH, Professor Jina Jang of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Computer Convergence Engineering, Department of Life Sciences, and Graduate School of Convergence, and Professor Dong-Woo Cho of the Department of Mechanical Engineering collaborated with research groups at Chonnam National University and Sungkyunkwan University to develop a brain model based on extracellular matrix (ECM) derived from pig brain, and on the 16th it was announced that they had succeeded in developing the matrix needed for production. This study was recently published in the international academic journal ‘Small’.
Jinah Jang, professor at POSTECH
Currently, Matrigel is widely used as a substrate when growing brain-derived stem cells or producing similar models of brain organs, but it has limitations in precisely controlling the movement of brain neurons.
ECM derived from real brains (BdECM) is emerging as an alternative, but human brains are difficult to provide and the yield of the decellularization process, which is the process of creating the matrix, is very low. Furthermore, the use of animal-derived BdECM has been limited because cellular safety has not yet been sufficiently reviewed.
Creating an environment to grow human nerves and brain cells using pig brain tissue
The research team recreated the microscopic environment of the brain by reinforcing laminin in porcine-derived BdECM (P-BdECM). Laminin is one of the proteins lost during the decellularization process and is involved in cell survival and growth. As a result of the experiment, P-BdECM was very similar in protein composition and function to human-derived BdECM (H-BdECM), and laminin had a synergistic effect with other proteins that make up P-BdECM to promote the survival of brain neurons and promoted differentiation. Furthermore, the research team confirmed that immune factors that reduce cellular safety were removed from the newly developed matrix.
Professor Cho Dong-woo of POSTECH and Professor Cho Han-sang of Sungkyunkwan University said: “Based on this study, which accurately reproduces the pathophysiological environment of the brain, we plan to develop a brain model to identify the fundamental mechanisms of incurable brain diseases such as dementia and multiple sclerosis.”
This research was conducted with the support of the “Biotechnology and Medical Technology Development Project” of the Korean National Research Foundation, the Overcoming Dementia Research and Development Project of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Science and of ICT, and of the Pan-Ministry Regenerative Medicine Technological Development Project of the Pan-Ministry Regenerative Medicine Project Group. Participating in the research were Dr. Bae Mi-hyun of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Professor Kim Hyeong-seok of the Chonnam National University College of Medicine, Professor Jo Han-sang of the Department of Physics of Life of Sungkyunkwan University and Huyen Ngo of the Integrated Course.
Pohang = journalist Jeong Jae-hoon jhoon@etnews.com
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