The Harvard Stem Cell Institute has been working to find ways to treat disease with stem cells. A recent
study by Harvard has shown that stem cell transplantation could be a useful way to help epileptics who don't respond well to the current anti-seizure drugs. What they have successfully transplanted in mice are seizure-inhibiting human embryonic stem cell-derived neurons into the brains of mice. The results show that half of the mice no longer had seizures and the other half showed significant drops in frequency of seizures. More research from this project can be viewed in
this paper, where the methods are more in depth and results are displayed.
This picture above shows one of the stem cell-derived neurons integrating itself into an affected epileptic brain. I find it interesting how valuable stem cells are to researching new ways to treat disease. I believe they have endless possibilities once we establish ways to mass produce them. The brain is always a touchy subject when it comes to treatments of disease because of all the complications that can come with it, but reading articles like this gives me hope about the future.
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This was a really interesting article. My uncle has been suffering from seizures for a long time due to a brain aneurysm. Despite the different medications and a couple surgeries nothing has been able to completely alleviate his symptoms. I think stem cells have a lot of potential and I am hopeful they can help patients not only with seizures but also many other diseases as well. Overall great find.
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