Links for Keyword: Stem Cells

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Roxanne Khamsi Embryonic and adult stem cells offer similar protection against neurodegenerative disease, according to a landmark study in mice which has achieved a number of firsts with human stem cells. For the first time, rodents genetically predisposed to disease lived longer and healthier lives after receiving injections of the human cells, researchers claim. “We have been talking about stem cells for a decade and no one had cured anything with stem cells before this,” comments Eva Mezey, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, US, who was not involved in the work. In the new study, Evan Snyder of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California, US, and colleagues studied mice with a mutation in a gene called Hex. This mutation leads to a deficiency in an enzyme that breaks down fatty substances called lipids. As a result, these lipid molecules accumulate in the brain and spinal cord, destroying cells and causing the loss control over body movement. Mice with the disorder die prematurely, at around 120 days of age. In humans, similar mutations in the Hex gene lead to illnesses such as Tay Sachs disease and Sandhoff’s disease, which lead to death within the first few years of life because no treatment exists. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization
Link ID: 10063 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Roxanne Khamsi Stem cells can help restore some function in injured rats with spinal cord damage, suggests a new study. The team, led by Michael Fehlings at the Toronto Western Research Institute, Canada, used stem cells taken from mice brains. They injected a finely tuned cocktail of growth hormones, anti-inflammatory drugs and the cells into rats with crushed spines. Although rats not given the stem cell treatment naturally regained some of their hind limb function two weeks after the injury, they were extremely uncoordinated. The stem cell treatment improved limb function, although it did not completely restore it. The study is important, says Phillip Popovich at Ohio State University in Columbus, US. He notes that the special cocktail of growth hormones and anti-inflammatory compounds used in the rats could play a crucial role in making stem cell therapies work. However, he cautions that this type of approach might be difficult to administer to humans. “I would think the biggest drawback is the complexity of the approach. From a logistical standpoint, instrumenting catheters and preparing cells for transplantation will be an expensive venture,” he told New Scientist. “Patients aren’t going to be given a pill or a shot.” © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 8725 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists report for the first time that “baby” teeth, the temporary teeth that children begin losing around their sixth birthday, contain a rich supply of stem cells in their dental pulp. The researchers say this unexpected discovery could have important implications because the stem cells remain alive inside the tooth for a short time after it falls out of a child’s mouth, suggesting the cells could be readily harvested for research. According to the scientists, who published their findings online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the stem cells are unique compared to many “adult” stem cells in the body. They are long lived, grow rapidly in culture, and, with careful prompting in the laboratory, have the potential to induce the formation of specialized dentin, bone, and neuronal cells. If followup studies extend these initial findings, the scientists speculate they may have identified an important and easily accessible source of stem cells that possibly could be manipulated to repair damaged teeth, induce the regeneration of bone, and treat neural injury or disease. “Doctors have successfully harvested stem cells from umbilical cord blood for years,” said Dr. Songtao Shi, a scientist at NIH’s National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) and the senior author on the paper. “Our finding is similar in some ways, in that the stem cells in the tooth are likely latent remnants of an early developmental process.”

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 3717 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Toni Baker Dr. Paul Sohal, developmental biologist at the Medical College of Georgia, is exploring the potential for a possible new cell type he's found that is capable of making all four of the major human tissues.] A cell type with the potential for making the four major types of human tissue has been found in the stomach and small intestine by a Medical College of Georgia researcher. These VENT cells have been found in addition to the three sources of cells typically associated with gastrointestinal development, says Dr. Paul Sohal, MCG developmental biologist, who first identified these cells nearly a decade ago. Identification of VENT -- ventrally emigrating neural tube -- cells within the stomach and small intestine is another piece in Dr. Sohal’s effort to fully define and describe the cells that he first found migrating out from the neural tube of a chick embryo. Copyright 2003 Medical College of Georgia All rights reserved.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 13: Homeostasis: Active Regulation of the Internal Environment
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 9: Homeostasis: Active Regulation of the Internal Environment
Link ID: 3471 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Cloned Cells Cure Parkinson’s in Rat Model Scientists at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago have discovered an important shortcut to creating a more efficient, more reliable, and safer source of stem cells with the ability to turn into specific neurons or brain cells. Paul Carvey, PhD, chairman of pharmacology at Rush, used his team's discovery to clone several generations of stem cells that, when grafted into the brains of rats with a Parkinson's like disease, developed into healthy dopamine neurons. This effectively cured the animals' severe Parkinsonian symptoms. The ability to clone large numbers of stem cells that would become neurons also has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and numerous other diseases and disorders of the brain and nervous system. The findings, and their clinical significance, were presented at the Experimental Biology 2002 meetings in New Orleans last month. This study is the first to identify the signal that instructs stem/progenitor cells to become dopamine neurons, the cells that degenerate in the brain of patients with Parkinson's disease.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 2056 - Posted: 06.24.2010

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL - Researchers at the University of Minnesota provide evidence for the first time that stem cells derived from adult bone marrow and injected into the blastocyst of a mouse can differentiate into all major types of cells found in the brain. The results of the research are published as the lead article in the April 25, 2003 issue of Cell Transplantation. The potential of these adult stem cells, termed multipotent adult progenitor cells (MAPCs), were the subject of research reported in Nature in June 2002. The research reported this week in Cell Transplantation takes a specific look at the ability of MAPCs to develop into cells typically found in the brain. Adult stem cells were injected into a mouse blastocyst, an early embryonic stage of a mouse. The result is the birth of a chimerical animal an animal that shows the presence of both the cells from the host mouse as well as cells that have developed from the transplanted stem cells. Within the brain, the transplanted stem cells developed into nerve cells that typically conduct electrical impulses, glial cells that provide support to the nerve cells, and myelin-forming cells that enhance the conduction of electrical impulses by nerve cells. “This research takes our findings a step further,” said principal investigator Walter C. Low, Ph.D., department of Neurosurgery, University of Minnesota Medical School.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 3736 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Linda Geddes STEM cells show promise for treating a range of neurological conditions, including Parkinson's, strokes and Alzheimer's, but it is tricky getting them into the brain. Perhaps inhaling stem cells might be the answer - if mice are anything to go by. Other options all have their drawbacks. Drilling through the skull and injecting the stem cells is painful and carries some risks. You can also inject them into the bloodstream but only a fraction reach their target due to the blood-brain barrier. The nose, however, might be a viable alternative. In the upper reaches of the nasal cavity lies the cribriform plate, a bony roof that separates the nose from the brain. It is perforated with pin-size holes, which are plugged with nerve fibres and other connective tissue. Since proteins, bacteria and viruses can enter the brain this way, Lusine Danielyan at the University Hospital of Tübingen in Germany, and her colleagues, wondered if stem cells would also migrate into the brain through the cribriform plate. To test their idea, they dripped a suspension of fluorescently labelled stem cells into the noses of mice. The mice snorted them high into their noses, and the cells migrated through the cribriform plate. Then they travelled either into the olfactory bulb - the part of the brain that detects and deciphers odours - or into the cerebrospinal fluid lining the skull, migrating across the brain. The stem cells then moved deeper into the brain. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity; Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System; Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 13256 - Posted: 06.24.2010

David Cyranoski Two teams of Chinese researchers have created live mice from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, answering a lingering question about the developmental potential of the cells. Since Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan created the first iPS cells1 in 2006, researchers have wondered whether they could generate an entire mammalian body from iPS cells, as they have from true embryonic stem cells. Experiments reported online this week in Nature 2 and in Cell Stem Cell 3 suggest that, at least for mice, the answer is yes. For the first study, animal cloners Qi Zhou of the Institute of Zoology in Beijing and Fanyi Zeng of Shanghai Jiao Tong University started by creating iPS cells the same way as Yamanaka, by using viral vectors to introduce four genes into mouse fibroblast cells. The researchers hoped that the introduced factors would 'reprogram' the cells so that they could differentiate into any type of cell in the body. To check whether the reprogramming had worked, Zhou and Zeng first carried out a standard set of tests, including analysing whether their iPS cells had the same surface markers as embryonic stem cells. Going a step further, they then created a 'tetraploid' embryo by fusing two cells of an early-stage fertilized embryo. A tetraploid embryo develops a placenta and other cells necessary for development, but not the embryonic cells that would become the body. It is, in essence, a car without a driver. © 2009 Nature Publishing Group

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 13099 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By John von Radowitz Disabling strokes could one day be treated by replacing damaged brain tissue with stem cells, scientists have shown. Researchers used a new technique to insert therapeutic stem cells into the brains of rats with pinpoint accuracy. Once implanted the cells began to form new brain tissue and nerve connections. The work is at an early stage and does not yet prove that stroke symptoms such as paralysis can be reversed. But it demonstrates that lost brain tissue can be replaced with stem cells targeted at sites of damage. Stem cells are immature cells with the ability to take on any of a number of specialist roles. In previous animal experiments, stem cells implanted into the brain have tended to migrate to surrounding healthy tissue rather than fill up the hole left by a stroke. Scientists from King's College London and the University of Nottingham overcame the problem by loading the cells onto biodegradable particles. These were then injected through a fine needle to the precise site of damage, located using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Once implanted, the particles disappeared leaving gaps for the growth of new tissue and nourishing blood vessels. ©independent.co.uk

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization; Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization; Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 12625 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Peter Aldhous You can think of it as recreating a deadly disease in the Petri dish. Scientists have grown motor neurons by "reprogramming" skin cells taken from a patient with the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Now they aim to study the cells to gain a better understanding of what goes wrong in the condition, and to screen for drugs that might help prevent the damage. ALS affects cells in the spinal cord that send nerves into the muscles, controlling movement. Patients with the disease become progressively paralysed, and may eventually be unable to breathe. Famous sufferers include the US baseball player Lou Gehrig, who died of the condition in 1941, and the British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. Reprogrammed cells It is not possible to culture the affected cells directly from a patient's spinal cord. So researchers led by Kevin Eggan of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and Christopher Henderson of Columbia University, New York, took skin cells from an 82-year-old woman with ALS, and her sister, aged 89, who also has the disease. The researchers first used the genetic reprogramming technique pioneered by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan to make cells known as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) from both women's skin cells. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 11884 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Nikhil Swaminathan After seven years of toiling, scientists at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Harvard School of Medicine report they have isolated stem cells from a new source: amniotic fluid. The researchers not only succeeded in separating the progenitor cells from the many cells residing in the watery fluid in the placenta surrounding an embryo, but were also able to coax the cells to differentiate into muscle, bone, fat, blood vessel, liver and nerve cells. According to lead author Anthony Atala, director of Wake Forest's Institute of Regenerative Medicine, 99 percent of the U.S., population could conceivably find genetic matches for tissue regeneration or engineered organs from just 100,000 amniotic fluid samples. In its research, the team isolated stem cells via amniocentesis--a common procedure performed about 16 weeks into pregnancy during which amniotic fluid is drawn to test for genetic disorders in a fetus--as well as from the placenta after birth. The researchers write in their paper--published in this week's Nature Biotechnology--that stem cells make up 1 percent of all the cells in amniotic fluid samples. "It's been known for decades that there are cells in amniotic fluid," Atala says. "The embryo is constantly shedding all these cells, as it's developing, to the amniotic fluid. The baby's actually breathing in, swallowing the fluid, and it's all coming out through all the pores and gets trapped in the placenta." © 1996-2007 Scientific American, Inc.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 9818 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Rick Weiss Scientists in Germany said yesterday that they had retrieved easily obtained cells from the testes of male mice and transformed them into what appear to be embryonic stem cells, the versatile and medically promising biological building blocks that can morph into all kinds of living tissues. If similar starter cells exist in the testes of men, as several scientists yesterday said they now believe is likely, then it may not be difficult for scientists to cultivate them in laboratory dishes, grow them into new tissues and transplant those tissues into the ailing organs of men who donated the cells. The technique would have vast advantages over the current approach to growing "personalized" replacement parts -- an approach that has stirred intense political controversy because it requires the creation and destruction of cloned human embryos as stem cell sources. The new work suggests that every male may already have everything he needs to regenerate new tissues -- at least with a little help from his local cell biologist. No one knows whether cells with similar potential exist inside female bodies -- a crucial question if women, too, are to have access to new tissues genetically matched to themselves and so not susceptible to rejection by their immune systems. But recent studies have led many researchers to conclude that the possibility is greater than previously believed. © 2006 The Washington Post Company

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 8715 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Even for scientists, it's not every day you see a hairless mouse glowing bright green under a fluorescent light. And for scientists searching for stem cells that could grow into nerve or brain cells, seeing such a mouse meant finding a possible whole new source of such cells. The scientists had given the mouse a gene so that areas would glow green where such stem cells might be found. They expected part of the mouse around the head to glow green. Instead, the entire mouse was aglow. "I'll never forget the minute that we made that observation," says Robert Hoffman, president of AntiCancer, Inc., where the finding took place. Because of that moment, which Hoffman says was, in fact, a "lucky discovery," company scientists have been working on what could be a new source of adult stem cells. Their most recent research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), shows that they've been able to use stem cells taken from a mouse hair follicle to help regenerate damaged nerves in mice. In previous research, also published in PNAS, they showed the stem cells could become special brain cells called neurons. © ScienCentral, 2000-2006.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 8658 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer Researchers in San Diego have designed mice containing fully functional human nerve cells as a novel way to study and potentially treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. The neurons were formed in the brains of mice that had been injected with human embryonic stem cells as 2-week-old embryos. Studies at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences in La Jolla showed that the human cells migrated throughout the mouse brain and took on the traits of their mouse-cell neighbors. The results present direct evidence that primitive human stem cells can be cultured in the lab, be injected into an animal, and then develop into a particular type of desired cell. The report appears in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists said it was the first time cultured human embryonic stem cells have been shown to develop into a particular type of cell in the body of another living species. Creation of a so-called "mouse-human chimeric nervous system" stops well short of spawning a mouse with a human-like cerebral cortex. In fact, all the brain structures of the four mice used in the Salk experiments had been formed before the human cells were injected, and less than 0.1 percent of the mice brain cells were found to be of human origin. ©2005 San Francisco Chronicle

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 8309 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Charles Q. Choi Mothers could literally always have their kids on their minds. Researchers find that in mice, cells from fetuses can migrate into a mother's brain and apparently develop into nervous system cells. The discovery comes from Gavin S. Dawe of the National University of Singapore and Zhi-Cheng Xiao of Singapore General Hospital, along with their colleagues from China and Japan. They were looking to design therapies for stroke or diseases such as Alzheimer's. Scientists have known for years that fetal cells can enter a mother's blood; in humans, they may remain there at least 27 years after birth. Like stem cells, they can become many other kinds of cells and in theory might help repair damaged organs. The neurobiologists bred normal female mice with males genetically modified to uniformly express a green fluorescent protein. They found green fetal cells in the mothers' brains. "In some regions of some mothers' brains, there are as many as one in 1,000 to sometimes even 10 in 1,000 cells of fetal origin," Xiao reports. The fetal cells transformed into what seem like neurons, astrocytes (which help to feed neurons), oligodendrocytes (which insulate neurons) and macrophages (which ingest germs and damaged cells). Moreover, after the scientists chemically injured the mouse brains, nearly six times as many fetal cells made their way to damaged areas than elsewhere, suggesting the cells could be responding to molecular distress signals released by the brain. © 1996-2005 Scientific American, Inc.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 8163 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Christen Brownlee Two independent groups of scientists have devised ways to isolate embryonic stem cells from mice without destroying viable embryos. These new methods are intended to satisfy the ethical concerns of people who oppose destroying human embryos to do research or treat disease. Unlike any cell known in adults, embryonic stem cells can morph into virtually any of the body's cell types, such as nerve, muscle, or heart. Many researchers have proposed exploiting this unique capability to make new cells for the treatment of injuries or diseases such as Parkinson's disease (SN: 4/2/05, p. 218: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050402/bob10.asp). However, to isolate a new line of embryonic stem cells, scientists have had to first destroy an early embryo. "Many people, including the President, are concerned about destroying life in order to save life," says Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass. Seeking to resolve this dilemma, Lanza and his colleagues looked to a technique commonly used to diagnose genetic diseases in embryos. Known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, the procedure removes one cell from an eight-cell-stage embryo and examines its DNA for defects. The remaining seven-cell embryo, after being implanted in the mother's womb, can develop into a normal baby. ©2005 Science Service.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 8053 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Christen Brownlee By fusing an embryonic stem cell with an adult skin cell, researchers have created cells that retain valuable embryonic characteristics but carry the adult cell's genes. This new method might eventually lead to stem cell lines that match a patient's DNA while avoiding the destruction of human embryos, a process that some people find morally unacceptable. Scientists envision someday using embryolike cells to grow tissues for transplant or transplanting such cells into a patient, where they would grow to replace damaged or diseased tissues. If these cells carried a patient's genetic material, they might sidestep the risk of a destructive immune reaction. Some scientists also predict that cells with embryonic properties could give researchers a new way to study genetic diseases. Cells that carry the DNA from a patient with a genetic disease could differentiate in a petri dish, permitting scientists to observe how disease characteristics develop. Korean scientists recently created the first lines of embryonic stem cells derived from clones made with people's cells. However, the team used more than 100 human eggs, which are difficult to obtain, and created early human embryos, which they destroyed to harvest stem cells (SN: 5/21/05, p. 323: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050521/fob1.asp). Copyright ©2005 Science Service.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 7806 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Clive Cookson The late 1990s was the most productive period in the history of biological research. The birth of Dolly, the first cloned mammal, was quickly followed by the first successful derivation of human embryonic stem cells and then, as the new millennium dawned, the completion of the Human Genome Project. Since then the media have amplified these achievements, with the enthusiastic encouragement of many of the researchers involved, to create intense public excitement about a new era of regenerative medicine. Some people imagine that within a few years it will be possible, through some still obscure combination of stem cells, cloning and genetic engineering, to create new cells and eventually whole organs to replace those that fail through disease, accident or old age. That promise is counterbalanced by ethical and religious objections to stem cell research--particularly to the idea that embryos could be created especially for research and then destroyed--and fears that therapeutic cloning could open the door to reproductive cloning. For many people the very phrase "stem cells" sums up all the excitement and fears. But there is widespread ignorance about stem cells and wishful thinking about how quickly their potential will be achieved. This report is intended to shed scientific light on the future of stem cell research--and the associated policy issues that are driving national and state governments to commit billions of dollars of public funds to the field. © 1996-2005 Scientific American, Inc

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 7553 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Christen Brownlee Made-to-order stem cells that genetically match a patient's own tissues could provide a perfect patch for replacing cells damaged by injury or disease. This approach would avoid immune rejection (SN: 4/2/05, p. 218: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050402/bob10.asp). By priming embryonic cells with genetic material derived from people with problems that stem cells may one day treat, researchers have isolated 11 new lines of stem cells that exactly match the patients' own DNA. Therapeutic cloning, which yields stem cells that can be used to treat patients, differs from reproductive cloning, which creates a new organism. However, the two types of cloning use many of the same techniques. Scientists start by removing an egg's nucleus, which carries most of a cell's genetic material. They then inject the egg with a nucleus from a donor cell, such as a skin cell. After the cell divides and grows into a multicelled embryo, researchers doing therapeutic cloning extract stem cells that carry the same genetic signature as that of the donated nucleus. Until recently, researchers' ambitions were hampered by difficulties in creating clones of human cells. Last year, a team led by Woo Suk Hwang at Seoul National University in South Korea succeeded in making the first human clone and in isolating stem cells from it (SN: 2/14/04, p. 99: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040214/fob1.asp). Copyright ©2005 Science Service.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 7383 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Much of the controversy surrounding research on stem cells hinges on the source of the cells--particularly whether they come from embryonic sources or adult ones. Now research published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides new insight into the abilities of stem cells taken from hair follicles. The results indicate that these adult stem cells can develop into neurons. Inside a hair follicle is a small bulge that houses stem cells. As hair follicles cycle through growth and rest periods, these stem cells periodically differentiate into new follicle cells. Yasuyuki Amoh of AntiCancer, Inc. and his colleagues isolated stem cells from the whiskers of mice and tested their ability to become more sophisticated cell types. The researchers cultured the cells and after one week discovered that they had changed into neurons and two other cell types, known as astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, that are associated with neurons. According to the report, when left for longer periods lasting weeks or months, the stem cells could differentiate into a variety of cell types, including skin and muscle cells. © 1996-2005 Scientific American, Inc.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 7096 - Posted: 06.24.2010