[ExI] Smarter mice

[BillK]

The altered mice still have mouse neurons - the "thinking" cells that
make up around half of all their brain cells. But practically all the
glial cells in their brains, the ones that support the neurons, are
human.
<http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26639-the-smart-mouse-with-the-halfhuman-brain.html>

Quote:
Goldman's team extracted immature glial cells from donated human
fetuses. They injected them into mouse pups where they developed into
astrocytes, a star-shaped type of glial cell.

Within a year, the mouse glial cells had been completely usurped by
the human interlopers. The 300,000 human cells each mouse received
multiplied until they numbered 12 million, displacing the native
cells.

Astrocytes are vital for conscious thought, because they help to
strengthen the connections between neurons, called synapses. Their
tendrils (see image) are involved in coordinating the transmission of
electrical signals across synapses.

Human astrocytes are 10 to 20 times the size of mouse astrocytes and
carry 100 times as many tendrils. This means they can coordinate all
the neural signals in an area far more adeptly than mouse astrocytes
can. "It's like ramping up the power of your computer," says Goldman.

A battery of standard tests for mouse memory and cognition showed that
the mice with human astrocytes are much smarter than their mousy
peers.
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Two thoughts.........

Would replacing glial cells in Alzheimers patients improve their condition?

For normal people, would injecting high quality glial cells, say, from
a genius level person, improve their intelligence?


BillK