Scientists have found a way of making human embryonic stem cells implanted into the brains and spinal cords of rats develop into nerve cells. It could bring treatments for neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's a step closer to reality. Previous attempts to replace damaged nerve cells have failed, with only a few cells developing into neurons. By treating the stem cells with chemicals, the scientists succeeded in changing them into neurons. But despite this advance the researchers say there is still a long way to go before stem cells will lead to new treatments for humans. Stem cell research is being hailed by many scientists as the tool that could give rise to cures for diseases where cells are damaged in the brain and the spinal cord. (C) BBC

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: 2988 - Posted: 11.12.2002

Scientists have used stem cells to treat brain cancer in mice. Not only did the treatment extend the animals' survival, it also appeared to wipe out the cancer completely in almost one in three cases. The researchers, from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, took immature neural (nerve) cells from the bone marrow and used gene therapy to stimulate them to produce a cancer-killing protein. he cells were then injected into mice with brain tumours. Currently, the standard treatment for brain tumours is surgery, However, some tumours recur because cells have migrated away from the main site, and cannot be found. The researchers were particularly keen to target these migratory cells. (C) BBC

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: 2841 - Posted: 10.21.2002

Transplants in Animal Models Could Translate Into Therapy for Humans PHILADELPHIA, (AScribe Newswire) -- Neural stem cells, transplanted into injured brains, survive, proliferate, and improve brain function in laboratory models according to research based at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The findings, published in the October edition of the journal Neurosurgery, suggest that stem cells could provide the first clinical therapy to treat traumatic brain injuries. Traumatic brain injuries occur in two million Americans each year and are the leading cause of long-term neurological disability in children and young adults. "Transplantation of neural stem cells in mice three days after brain injury promotes the improvement of specific components of motor function," said Tracy K. McIntosh, PhD, professor in the Department of Neurosurgery, Director of Penn's Head Injury Center, and senior author of the study. "More importantly, these stem cells respond to signals and create replacement cells: both neurons, which transmit nerve signals, and glial cells, which serve many essential supportive roles in the nervous system." If stem cells are blank slates, able to become any type of body cells, then neural stem cells (NSCs) are slates with the basics of neurology already written on them, waiting for signals in the nervous system to fill in the blanks. The NSCs used by McIntosh and his colleagues were cloned from mouse progenitor cells and grown in culture. The advantage of NSCs exists in their ability to easily incorporate themselves into their new environment in ways other types of transplants could not.

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: 2749 - Posted: 10.02.2002

By NICHOLAS WADE A rare natural experiment has given researchers hope of using stem cells to treat muscular dystrophy, a group of genetic diseases that cause progressive wasting of the muscles. The subject of the experiment is a boy who at age 1 received a bone marrow transplant for an immune deficiency disease and at 12 was found to have a second serious genetic disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Cells from the donor of the marrow have now been detected in the boy's muscle fibers by Dr. Louis M. Kunkel, a dystrophy expert at Children's Hospital in Boston, and Dr. Kenneth Weinberg of Children's Hospital Los Angeles, a bone marrow transplant surgeon who is the boy's physician. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

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: 2638 - Posted: 09.13.2002

Proof that human bone marrow cells can travel to diseased muscle BOSTON - Researchers have found that donor cells from a bone marrow transplant given to a one year old boy later diagnosed with muscular dystrophy remained in the patient's muscle 13 years later. The findings, by researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Children's Hospital Los Angeles, suggest that human bone marrow cells can become part of diseased muscle fibers and be detected many years after transplantation. The new results, reported in the September 2002 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, come from a patient who suffers from two serious genetic diseases. When he was six months old, doctors at Children's Hospital Los Angeles diagnosed this patient with X-linked severe combined immune deficiency (SCID). Often known as "bubble boy disease" after David Vetter, the patient who lived in a germ-free plastic bubble for 12 years, SCID results from a genetic mutation that greatly reduces the body's ability to fight off disease. Patients have little resistance to infections such as pneumonia and meningitis, which can therefore be life threatening.

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: 2617 - Posted: 09.10.2002

STANFORD, Calif. - Researchers at Stanford University Medical Center report that they have tried - and failed - to coax adult blood-forming stem cells in mice into forming tissues other than blood and immune cells. This research, published in the Sept. 5 issue of Science Express, an advance online publication of the journal Science, strikes another blow at the idea that stem cells taken from adults have the same developmental potential as those taken from embryos. This work contributes to a growing debate over the fate of embryonic stem cell research. Several researchers have claimed that stem cells taken from adult bone marrow have the same potential to form all adult tissues as do embryonic stem cells. With that in mind, some policy-makers want to ban embryonic stem cell research in favor of similar research using less controversial adult stem cells. Irving Weissman, MD, the Karel and Avice Beekhuis Professor of Cancer Biology at Stanford and lead author of the current study, has long argued that only embryonic stem cells have the ability to form all adult tissues. The latest paper reinforces that view.

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: 2596 - Posted: 09.06.2002

Many ethical and political issues could be averted if adult stem cells prove to be as successful at differentiating into all tissue types in the human body as their embryonic counterparts are. Numerous studies have so far reported success at coaxing adult stem cells into various cell types under different conditions. But a report published online today by the journal Science suggests otherwise. The findings indicate that stem cells cultivated from adult blood may resist change more strongly than previously thought.

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: 2591 - Posted: 09.06.2002

Plans for Britain's first stem cell bank are to be given the final go ahead next month, it is reported. The bank, run by the Medical Research Council (MRC), would collect stem cells from human embryos for medical research. Supporters say the resource could one day be used to treat conditions like Alzheimer's and diabetes. But there are fears that couples undergoing IVF treatment could be put under pressure to donate spare embryos. This has been denied by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which regulates embryo research. HFEA head Suzi Leather told the BBC that strict guidelines were in place to stop that happening. (C) BBC

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: 2543 - Posted: 08.28.2002

DURHAM, N.C. -- Like biochemical alchemists, investigators from Duke University Medical Center and Artecel Sciences, Inc., have transformed adult stem cells taken from fat into cells that appear to be nerve cells. During the past several years, Duke researchers and scientists from Artecel demonstrated the ability to reprogram adult stem cells taken from human liposuction procedures into fat, cartilage and bone cells. All of these cells arise from mesenchymal, or connective tissue, parentage. However, the latest experiments have demonstrated that researchers can transform these stem cells from fat into a totally different lineage, that of neuronal cells. Although it is unclear at this point whether or not the new cells will function like native nerve cells, the researchers are optimistic that if future experiments are as successful as the ones to date, these new cells have the potential to treat central nervous system diseases and disorders.

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: 2175 - Posted: 05.31.2002

By Richard Black Scientists in Norway have for the first time managed to turn one sort of human cell into another. Conventional scientific wisdom has been once a skin cell, always a skin cell. All the evidence has been that nerve cells can only produce other nerve cells, muscle cells only produce other muscle cells, and so on. But researchers at the University of Oslo have turned the conventional view on its head. (C) BBC

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: 1985 - Posted: 05.01.2002

Neural stem cells are a ready supply of new parts for the constant wiring and rewiring of the brain's circuitry as this complex organ responds to environmental stimuli so that we can learn new skills, interpret new data and rethink old ideas. But if those cells can't migrate to the right place and morph into the right kinds of neural links, our cognitive and psychological functions fail. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have found that a protein called reelin, whose function in the adult brain has long been a mystery, is responsible for directing the migration of neural stem cells to the appropriate location in the brain as it adapts to new information. The results of the study are published in the March 19 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 16: Psychopathology: Biological Basis of Behavior Disorders
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 12: Psychopathology: The Biology of Behavioral Disorders
Link ID: 1718 - Posted: 03.19.2002

Paralysed actor Christopher Reeve believes he will walk again, if stem cell research in the UK is allowed to continue. The star of the Superman films said he would be willing to travel to Britain for treatment to repair his spinal cord, which was damaged during a riding accident in 1995. Mr Reeve told BBC Radio 5 Live that the House of Lords Select Committee must decide in favour of embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning when it votes on the issue later this week. He said: "I certainly hope that in revisiting the issues the Lords will really take the time to understand what the technology actually is and to recognise that it has nothing to do with destroying life." (C) BBC

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: 1584 - Posted: 02.24.2002

Adult mammalian brain has potential to heal itself, says U-M scientist BOSTON, Mass. - Primitive neural cells in the brains of laboratory rats respond to acute brain injuries by moving to the injured area and attempting to form new neurons, according to University of Michigan neurologist Jack M. Parent, M.D. Understanding how this self-repair mechanism works could someday help physicians reduce brain damage caused by strokes or neurodegenerative diseases. In a presentation here today at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, Jack M. Parent, M.D., an assistant professor of neurology in the U-M Medical School, described results from a series of his experiments with laboratory rats. Prolonged epileptic seizures or strokes in these rats caused neural precursor cells called neuroblasts - cells midway in development between a stem cell and a fully developed neuron - to multiply and form neural chains that migrated across the brain to the site of injury. "What's fascinating is that neuroblasts responded similarly to both types of brain injury," says Parent. "There's some cue in common that activates their development and growth. We don't know what it is, but we are looking for candidate molecules - growth factors or neurotrophic factors - that stimulate the proliferation and migration of precursor cells." (c) copyright 2002 University of Michigan Health System

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: 1549 - Posted: 02.20.2002

By NICHOLAS WADE Researchers say they have taken a step toward developing a novel source of embryonic stem cells, the all-purpose cells that biologists hope to use in repairing human tissues. The new method may avoid the usual controversy over the use of embryos, because the stem cells are derived from embryos that seem to have no chance of going to term. The new source is the unfertilized eggs that can be harvested from ovaries. The idea is to trick an egg into dividing as if it had been fertilized by a sperm. When the egg has developed into an early embryo, scientists derive embryonic stem cells, which could be converted into particular body tissues for use in patients. The embryonic stem cells studied so far have been derived from the leftover embryos generated in fertility clinics. Because the procedure requires killing the embryo, abortion opponents object to the research. Copyright 2002 The New York Times 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: 1454 - Posted: 02.01.2002

By ANDREW POLLACK IRVINE, Calif. - As debate again heats up over cloning and stem cell research, several biotechnology companies are trying to develop a far less controversial approach to cell regeneration. The companies are actively working on drugs that stimulate the brain and other organs to grow new cells and repair themselves. Drugs do not face the same problems with rejection by a recipient's immune system that cells and tissues often do. And in most cases, giving drugs would not require the surgery that might be needed to implant new cells grown from stem cells. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

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: 1162 - Posted: 12.13.2001

by Terry Devitt In a set of meticulous experiments, scientists have demonstrated the ability of human embryonic stem cells to develop into nascent brain cells and, seeded into the intact brains of baby mice, further develop into healthy, functioning neural cells. In a paper published in the journal Nature Biotechnology (December, 2001), a team of scientists from UW-Madison, along with colleagues from the University of Bonn Medical Center, show that the blank-slate stem cells taken from early human embryos can, in a laboratory dish, be guided down the developmental pathway to becoming precursor brain cells. Transplanted into the brains of baby mice, the precursor cells subsequently showed their ability to further differentiate into neurons and astrocytes, the cell species that populate the different regions of the brain and spinal cord. Copyright © 2001 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.

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: 1116 - Posted: 12.06.2001

by Apoorva Mandavilli Neural stem cells (NSCs) can alleviate neural degeneration by instructing host cells to regenerate, rather than by maturing into neurons themselves, Harvard neurologist Evan Snyder said today. In mice with Purkinje cell (PC) degeneration, Snyder reports, NSCs may be reconstituting the PC layer either by protecting host cells or by stimulating a more vigorous regenerative response. "We think this may be the donor cells secreting things that change the host," Snyder said. "And this may apply not just to NSCs but to many other types [of stem cells]." In fact, he suggests, the new model may explain some functional results now observed in other stem cell experiments. Snyder and his colleagues transplanted donor NSCs into the cerebella of nervous (nr), Purkinje-cell-deficient (pcd), and lurcher (lc) mice with rapid degeneration of PCs. Transplanted NSCs dispersed broadly, but only a minority of them matured into neurons and glial cells, the researchers say. © Elsevier Science Limited 2000

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: 1047 - Posted: 11.27.2001

Vital new clues to what makes certain cells in the brain act as neural stem cells have been uncovered. The researchers say their work will boost research into creating new neurons to repair damaged brains. Recent experiments have provided strong evidence that in the developing fetal brain, a subsection of a group of cells called radial glial cells act as neural stem cells, giving rise to neurons. Related cells in the adult brain called astrocytes can also act as neural stem cells. But what gives certain radial glial cells and a very small number of astrocytes in two discrete adult brain areas their stem cell capabilities has been a mystery. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 2: Functional Neuroanatomy: The Cells and Structure of the Nervous System
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 1: Cells and Structures: The Anatomy of the Nervous System
Link ID: 1026 - Posted: 11.23.2001

By discovering how a gene called PTEN influences the growth, proliferation and death of stem cells in the brain, scientists at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center have taken an important first step toward unraveling the mysteries of brain development and why some brain cells replicate uncontrollably, giving rise to brain tumors and other brain diseases. Understanding how PTEN works in the brain also is expected to shed light on how stem cells in other parts of the body develop abnormally and may contribute to tumor development in other organs. The findings are described in an article posted Nov. 1 in the journal Science as part of the journal's Science Express Web site, http://www.sciencexpress.org.

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: 943 - Posted: 11.07.2001

By ANDREW POLLACK LOS ANGELES, - In a development that may sidestep some of the ethical issues surrounding stem cell research, a scientist here says he has created stem cells that can turn into nerve cells using a kind of embryo that cannot develop into a baby. The work, done in mice, is one of several recent experiments that explore the usefulness of asexual reproduction in deriving stem cells. The researcher, Dr. Jerry L. Hall, uses chemicals to coax an egg to grow into an embryo of sorts without being fertilized by a male's sperm. Such embryos, even if implanted into a womb, would not grow to become viable babies, Dr. Hall and other experts said. Copyright 2001 The New York Times 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: 935 - Posted: 11.06.2001