US scientists find "mother of all brain stem cells"

Jun 14 2005

Scientists at the University of Florida have been able grow brain cells in the laboratory.

In research with mice they say they have found a way to identify master cells in the brain and grow them in large batches and this is possibly a potential way of helping patients grow their own brain tissue transplants.

The scientists have apparently created a process which makes the cells multiply, and this could be a crucial step in fighting degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson's and Huntington's.

This particular study is but one of many which has focused on the elusive progenitor cells, or stem cells, that are found in all tissue and in blood, but which are difficult to identify.

Once isolated, and cultivated with the right compounds and under the right conditions, it should in theory be possible to grow them into large lines, or batches, of the desired tissue.

As these so-called adult stem cells could come from the patient, no donor and no immune system suppressing drugs would be needed.

Dennis Steindler of the University of Florida, who worked on the study, says they have isolated for the first time what appears to be "the true candidate stem cell".

He says in this case, a special microscope was used that allowed them to watch living cells over long periods of time through a method called live-cell microscopy.

In this way they were able to witness the stem cell give rise to new neurons.

Even though a different method may be developed to identify stem cells, they are confident that they have found "the mother of all stem cells".

The researchers say they have also found an efficient way to make the cells multiply.

Dr. Bjorn Scheffler, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida, who led the study, says to manufacture and increase the number of brain cells is almost like an assembly line procedure.

The cells can be taken and frozen until needed, they are then thawed and the cell-generating process is begun and produces many new neurons.

The work can be seen in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.