Researchers decode human hippocampus development

BEIJING -- Chinese researchers have mapped the developmental cells of the human hippocampus, according to a recently published paper in the journal Nature.

The hippocampus is an important part of the limbic system in the human brain that plays a critical role in spatial navigation and the consolidation of information from memory, said the paper.

The researchers from the Institute of Biophysics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Normal University and Peking University illustrated the cell types, cell lineage and molecular features of the developing human hippocampus.

They sequenced 30,416 single cells from the human hippocampus between 16 and 27 gestational weeks and identified 47 cell subtypes.

They illustrated spatially specific gene expression in the developing human hippocampus.

The research can be useful to investigate human hippocampus-related diseases such as epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease.