Human brain cellular xenografts in neuroimmunology and beyond.

Human brain cellular xenograft models transplant human pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons, glia, or organoids into immunodeficient mice to reveal human-specific phenotypes and mechanisms.

• Why it matters: Species differences in microglia and other tissue-resident brain macrophages limit what traditional in vitro systems and animal models can show for neuroimmunology and neurodegenerative disease.
• What they did: The review describes HBCX approaches using human pluripotent stem cell-derived brain cells or organoids in immunodeficient mice, emphasizing in vivo study of human physiology, pathology, and scalable genetic editing.
• The result: HBCXs enable functional genomics, drug testing, and biomarker discovery, and in selected settings may help guide future cell-based therapeutic strategies.