Source: University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Date: May 4, 2012
Summary:
In an effort to identify the underlying causes of neurological disorders that impair motor functions such as walking and breathing, UCLA researchers have developed a novel system to measure communication between stem cell-derived motor neurons and muscle cells in a Petri dish.
The study provides an important proof of principle that functional motor circuits can be created outside the body using these neurons and cells and that the level of communication, or synaptic activity, between them can be accurately measured by stimulating the motor neurons with an electrode and then tracking the transfer of electrical activity into the muscle cells to which the neurons are connected.
When motor neurons are stimulated, they release neurotransmitters that depolarize the membranes of muscle cells. This allows calcium and other ions to enter the cells, causing them to contract. By measuring the strength of this activity, one can get a good estimation of the overall health of motor neurons.
That estimation could shed light on a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, such as spinal muscular atrophy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), in which communication between motor neurons and muscle cells is thought to unravel, said the study's senior author, Bennett G. Novitch, an assistant professor of neurobiology and a scientist with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA.
The findings of the study appear May 4 in PLoS ONE, a peer-reviewed journal of the Public Library of Science.
