Source: HealthDay News
Date: June 4, 2008
Summary:
HealthDay News reports human neural stem cell transplants improved functioning in mice with multiple sclerosis:
"Mice with a congenital brain disorder improved after receiving human neural stem cell transplants, a U.S. study finds. The mice lacked myelin, a substance that plays a critical role in the transmission of electrical signals between nerve cells. When myelin is missing or damaged, electrical signals aren't properly transmitted. These "shiverer" mice typically die within months of birth."
The study compared previous research using cell transplants to restore destroyed myelin with results found in the current study:
"Previous research has examined the use of cell transplantation for restoring absent or lost myelin to diseased nerve fibers. But, until now, no transplantation of human neural stem cells or of their derivatives (glial progenitor cells) had been successful in test animals. In this new study, researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center and a number of other universities (Cornell, UCLA and Baylor) created a new method for harvesting and purification of human fetal glial progenitor cells. They also developed a new cell delivery strategy that uses multiple injection sites to encourage widespread and dense take-up of the transplanted cells through the central nervous system. When the researchers used these new approaches, the transplanted cells took hold throughout the brain and spinal cord, and the mice showed robust, efficient and functional myelination. Some of the mice showed neurological improvement and a fraction of them were save by the procedure."
