Source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Date: December 3, 2008
Summary:
Long thought of as mere bystanders, astrocytes are crucial for the survival and well-being of motor neurons, which control voluntary muscle movements. In fact, defective astrocytes can lay waste to motor neurons and are the main suspects in the muscle-wasting disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). To get to the root of this complicated relationship, researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies for the very first time established a human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-based system for modeling ALS. Their study confirmed that dysfunctional human astrocytes turn against their charges and kill off healthy motor neurons. But more importantly, treating the cultured cells with apocynin, a powerful anti-oxidant, staved off motor neuron death caused by malfunctioning astrocytes. Their findings, which appear in the Dec. 4 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, provide new insight into the toxic pathways that contribute to the demise of motor neurons in ALS and open up new possibilities for drug-screening experiments using human ALS in vitro models, as well as clinical interventions using astrocyte-based cell therapies.
