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Stem cells can make new brain cells
« on: 2003-01-27 19:46:51 » |
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Stem cells migrate from bone to brain
by Andy Coghlan
New Scientist, Jan 20, 2003
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993286
Autopsies on four dead women have shown for the first time that stem cells in bone marrow can develop into brain cells, not just blood and bone cells as previously thought.
The discovery suggests new approaches for repairing damaged or diseased brains. Stem cells themselves could be used, or the signalling chemicals that instruct them to become brain cells, although these have yet to be identified.
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The women whose brains were examined by autopsy had all been treated during their lives with bone marrow transplants from men. This meant that any cells the NINDS team found in the brain containing the male Y chromosome must have come from the donated bone marrow.
The researchers found such cells and not just in isolation, but in clumps. This suggests the bone marrow stem cells multiplied after reaching the brain.
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Mezey's hunch is that the raw stem cells circulate all the time, until they are summoned to sites of injury. Once there, they are fashioned into tissue that heals the damage.
"There's something that recruits these cells," says Mezey. "There's some factor that says: 'Come in here, we need you'. Then, they receive further orders as to what type of cell to become."
"We must now find out what these signals are," she says. Doctors could potentially accelerate healing by injecting extra signalling molecules into damaged tissue.
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