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Updated: Jul 10, 2026
Generation of Mice Derived from Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
Published on: November 29, 2012
Generation of rat forebrain tissues in mice
Jia Huang1, Bingbing He1, Xiali Yang2
1Department of Molecular Biology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390, USA; Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Shanghai Research Center for Brain Science and Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
Researchers achieved rat forebrain tissue generation in mice using interspecies blastocyst complementation (IBC). This breakthrough, utilizing a C-CRISPR strategy, offers new avenues for studying brain development and organogenesis.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Biology
- Neuroscience
- Regenerative Medicine
Background:
- Interspecies blastocyst complementation (IBC) is a powerful tool for developmental studies and organ generation.
- Previous IBC efforts have not successfully generated brain tissue.
- Organ shortages remain a significant global health challenge.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an optimized IBC strategy for generating forebrain tissue across species.
- To investigate the potential of Hesx1 deficiency in facilitating rat forebrain development in mice.
- To analyze the structural, functional, and transcriptomic characteristics of xenogeneic rat forebrain tissue in mice.
Main Methods:
- Development of a C-CRISPR-based IBC strategy for rapid gene screening.
- Generation of rat-mouse chimeras utilizing the optimized IBC approach.
- Comparative analysis of xenogeneic rat forebrain tissue development, structure, function, and transcriptome.
Main Results:
- Successfully generated structurally and functionally intact rat forebrain tissue in mice via IBC.
- Identified Hesx1 deficiency as a key factor supporting rat forebrain generation.
- Rat forebrain tissues exhibited host-matched development pace but retained rat-specific transcriptomes.
- Observed a decrease in rat cell chimerism during later prenatal development, indicating xenogeneic barriers.
Conclusions:
- The C-CRISPR-based IBC strategy enables the generation of xenogeneic forebrain tissue.
- This approach provides a novel platform for studying conserved and divergent mechanisms of brain development and evolution.
- The findings open new possibilities for interspecies organogenesis and addressing organ shortages.
