Source: University of South Florida (USF Health)
Date: December 14, 2010
Summary:
Laboratory culture (in vitro) studies examining the activity of human umbilical cord blood cells (HUCB) on experimental models of central nervous system aging, injury and disease, have shown that HUCBs provide a 'trophic effect' (nutritional effect) that enhances survival and maturation of hippocampal neurons harvested from both young and old laboratory animals. The study is published in the current issue of Aging and Disease.
According University of South Florida researchers, these changes contribute to stroke and dementia in the aging population when neural cells become more susceptible to stressors and disease processes. Because HUCB cells have received attention as an alternative source of stem cells that have been studied and shown to be effective with wide therapeutic potentials, how the cells might be used to repair the diseased, as well as normally aging brain, has become an important question.
The study found that HUCBs were not only able to protect hippocampal neurons taken from the brains of young adult and aged rats, but also promoted the growth of dendrites -- the branching neurons acting as signaling nerve communication channels -- as well as induced the proliferation hippocampal neurons.
