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Jul. 28th, 2005 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theweaselkingSwedish researchers have created new functioning brain cells from stem cells drawn from the brains of living adults
Neurosurgeons withdrew the stem cells from the brains of adults during routine surgery for hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, a researcher at the Stockholm Karolinska Institute told the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet.
As long as an agent was present to induce cell division, the extracted stem cells created new and working brain cells.
"So far we have managed to produce several millions of new cells from the original stem cells. About 25 percent of them are (active) neurons," Ulf Westerlund, who presented his doctoral thesis on the subject last week, told the paper.
When the researchers added glutamate, a salt that functions as a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, the new cells communicated in a network, according to Westerlund.
"This means we had working synapse connections that are needed for nerve cells to work," he said.
Neurosurgeons withdrew the stem cells from the brains of adults during routine surgery for hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, a researcher at the Stockholm Karolinska Institute told the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet.
As long as an agent was present to induce cell division, the extracted stem cells created new and working brain cells.
"So far we have managed to produce several millions of new cells from the original stem cells. About 25 percent of them are (active) neurons," Ulf Westerlund, who presented his doctoral thesis on the subject last week, told the paper.
When the researchers added glutamate, a salt that functions as a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, the new cells communicated in a network, according to Westerlund.
"This means we had working synapse connections that are needed for nerve cells to work," he said.
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Date: 2005-07-28 03:41 pm (UTC)-Ry
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-28 08:31 pm (UTC)