Source: Cell Press / Cell Stem Cell
Date: June 4, 2008
Summary:
Scientists report a dramatic success in what may be the first documented rescue of a congenital brain disorder by transplantation of human neural stem cells. The research, published by Cell Press in the June issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, may lead the way to new strategies for treating certain hereditary and perinatal neurological disorders.
The researchers found that the new transplant procedure resulted in infiltration of human glial progenitor cells throughout the brain and spinal cord. The engrafted mice exhibited robust, efficient and functional myelination. Most notably, many of the mice displayed progressive, neurological improvement and a fraction of the mice were actually rescued by the procedure. "The neurological recovery and survival of the mice receiving transplants was in sharp contrast to the fate of their untreated controls, which uniformly died by five months," explains Dr. Goldman. Upon histological examination well over a year after the procedure, the white matter of the surviving mice had been essentially re-myelinated by human cells.
