X-Message-Number: 8725 Date: Thu Nov 06 03:10:51 1997 PST Subject: Fwd: Scientists in breakthrough to replace brain cells From: (Edgar W Swank) 01:30 PM ET 11/05/97 Scientists in breakthrough to replace brain cells By Patricia Reaney LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have discovered a method of replacing damaged brain cells which could offer hope to millions of sufferers of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Scientists at the Institute of Psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital in London found that rats which suffered brain damage from simulated heart attacks recovered completely if they were injected with embryonic brain cells from mice. The implanted brain cells, called neuroepithelial stem cells or NESCs, found their way to the damaged brain cells and took over their functions. Rats which earlier had total amnesia and memory and learning problems were able to perform complex tasks after the cell implants. Professor Jeffrey Gray, one of the researchers, said tests on humans could begin in three years and a therapy to restore neurological and cognitive functions resulting from brain disorders could be available in less than a decade. ``The long-term implications are extremely favorable,'' he said in an interview. In addition to being pleased by the recovery of the brain-damaged rats, he said he was surprised that the injected cells moved to the damaged sites. But he added that much would depend on further tests on animals for different medical conditions before any human trials could begin. If the animal studies were successful, he said, the technique could help patients suffering from brain damage from heart attacks, strokes and Huntington's disease, a hereditary illness characterised by dementia. Gray, Dr. John Sinden and Dr. Helen Hodges, who worked as a team on the 12-year-study which was published in the journal Neuroscience, used mouse brain cells on the rats because they were easy to reproduce. They were able to grow millions of foetal brain stem cells in the laboratory by injecting the mouse brain cells with a cancer gene that switched on below the body temperature. Researchers will be able to grow the cells in the laboratory and keep them refrigerated until they are needed. Gray said the same method would be used for the human trials but he believed only one human foetal cell would provide millions of NESCs under laboratory conditions for the implants. The technique is not a brain transplant, he said, but a replacement for damaged brain cells. He likened it to repairing a tear in a finely woven carpet with a complicated pattern to restore it to its previous condition. Gray and his team have set up a research and development company which will specialise in the repair of the damaged brain. Edgar W. Swank <> President - American Cryonics Society http://www.jps.net/cryonics/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8725