Sunday, March 6, 2011
Scientists Grow Key Memory Cells in Lab Dish
In this article it states that researchers say that a person with Alzheimer's disease have stem cells that die early. To help restore a person's memory who were affected by this disease, there is technology that can provide a ready supply of stem cells for new drugs or transplants. This new way will help researchers find the disease in human cells rather than the genetically modified mice. These stem cells created neurons which are the parts that get lost in the disease process. "When Kessler and Bissonnette implanted the newly grown nerve cells into the brains of mice, they functioned normally, producing nerve fibers called axons and making the brain chemical acetylcholine, used to retrieve memories from other parts of the brain." Researchers are now finding ways to see the differences between healthy and diseased cells with induced pluripotent stem cells to hopfully be able to create memory cells to place in people with the disease. But for now, unfortunately there is no drug to stop the disease from progressing.
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That is a major find! If it turns out to be true Alzheimer's may become a thing of a past. I have Alzheimer very prevalent in my family and hopefully our kids will not have to deal with this problem. Great links!
ReplyDelete@patchr
ReplyDeleteThank you. I don’t have it in my family, at least so far, but my mother works as a nurses aid and has patients with Alzheimers. I find it very interesting how you can know a lot and in time it’s gone. I’m sorrie that it is in your family but like you mentioned.. who knows, our kids may not have to deal with this! Take care.