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Lab-made tadpole cyclopes could help with human organ transplants
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At first blush, a blind tadpole that’s had an eyeball grafted onto its tail sounds like a creature from a fairy tale — the Cyclops’ tadpole cousin. But these tadpoles exist (scientists made them!) and they could actually see through the grafted eyes after being treated with migraine medication. In fact, the feat is even more astonishing than that: the eyes didn’t connect directly to the brain, as eyes ordinarily do; they connected to the spinal cord instead. The results suggest that the tested medication, or other similar drugs, could one day help patients better integrate transplanted organs into their own bodies.
For a transplanted tissue or organ to fully operate in a new body, its nerves have to wire into the recipient’s nervous system. That’s difficult, says lead author Michael Levin, a professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts and the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. So his team began testing methods to help make that connection. A migraine drug can help the transplanted eye wire into the recipient's nervous system — allowing blind tadpoles to see.
At first blush, a blind tadpole that’s had an eyeball grafted onto its tail sounds like a creature from a fairy tale — the Cyclops’ tadpole cousin. But these tadpoles exist (scientists made them!) and they could actually see through the grafted eyes after being treated with migraine medication. In fact, the feat is even more astonishing than that: the eyes didn’t connect directly to the brain, as eyes ordinarily do; they connected to the spinal cord instead. The results suggest that the tested medication, or other similar drugs, could one day help patients better integrate transplanted organs into their own bodies.
For a transplanted tissue or organ to fully operate in a new body, its nerves have to wire into the recipient’s nervous system. That’s difficult, says lead author Michael Levin, a professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts and the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. So his team began testing methods to help make that connection. A migraine drug can help the transplanted eye wire into the recipient's nervous system — allowing blind tadpoles to see.