A new study by UC Berkeley researchers points to hyperreactive astrocytes as one of the primary drivers of the inflammation that can cause seizures and highlights possible therapies that could tamp down the inflammation. Astrocytes are one of three main types of glial cells in the brain and help support and facilitate the transmission of signals through neurons.
The work is published in the journal Nature.
Human brain organoids—balls of brain tissue several millimeters across floating in a nutrient liquid—contain only a few types of brain cells and are far from a real brain. But, unlike the flat layer of cells in a traditional cell culture, organoids develop and behave much like cells inside a living brain.