Alzhiemers
AlzhiemersBrain cell research offers hope for
Alzheimer's
NEW YORK, Feb 28 (Reuters Health) -- Taking cells from a
region of the brain known as the hippocampus, an international
team of researchers have grown functional brain cells in lab
cultures. The findings may have profound implications for
restoring damaged or degenerative brain cells, which occurs in
diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
The brain has recently been shown to regenerate some of its cells,
but scientists were unable to identify the cells, known as stem
cells, that gave rise to the new brain neurons. The technique used
in this study now gives scientists the ability to identify those stem
cells in the brains of living patients, and shows that these cells can
be stimulated to turn into new neurons, principal author Dr.
Steven A. Goldman told Reuters Health.
In addition, it may lead to the development of drugs that would
stimulate the formation of new brain cells in people with
Alzheimer's or other diseases where brain cells degenerate, he
commented.
Goldman noted that the use of drugs to stimulate proliferation of
new brain cells will probably result in a more successful strategy
than attempting to grow the cells outside the body and then
placing them back into the brains of patients, as some scientists
have suggested.
Goldman, of Cornell University Medical College in New York,
and colleagues surgically extracted brain cells from the
hippocampus of eight living male patients, ranging in age from 5 to
63 years, while they underwent surgery for another reason. The
investigators isolated stem cells from the brain tissue. The stem
cells were then grown in culture along with certain factors known
to control the development of neurons.
The cells gave rise to functional neurons, Goldman's team reports.
``The adult human hippocampus contains... progenitor cells that
can give rise to new neurons,'' the authors write in the March
issue of Nature Medicine. They add that ``the isolation of these
cells may provide a... substrate for re-populating the damaged or
degenerated adult hippocampus.''
In an accompanying commentary, Dr. Jack P. Antel and
colleagues of the McGill University in Montreal, Canada, say that
the study ``opens up the possibility'' of transplanting lab-grown
brain cells into patients.
However, in response, Goldman said, ``I think I would add a
word of caution in terms of the transplantation emphasis,'' adding
that the practical limitations ``may be daunting.'' Goldman added
that transplantation ``may be feasible on an experimental basis in
just a few years, but I don't think it will become a widespread
therapeutic technique.'' SOURCE: Nature Medicine
2000;6:249-250, 271-277.
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By Penny Stern, MD...
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