Transplantation of Fetal Stem Cells to Improve Brain Memory

There is still lack of resources to transplant a brain. It is a practical impossible operation to perform, so why not transplant neurons? This cell therapy has been proven to improve memory in rats.

It has been for several years now that people have been treated for Parkinson's disease by grafting foetal cells. An experiment conducted in rats shows that a similar contribution of young cells might help the fight against degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.

Experiment on Rats

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in older rats who lost part of their memory capacity, as indicated by their difficulty in finding their way into a predetermined course. After transplantation of foetal stem cells in their brains, the rats were able to overcome this ordeal quickly, where the older rats performed better than the younger rats.

Migration of cells

Stem cells, especially those of the foetus, have the property to give rise to any type of cell in the body and can be repeated indefinitely. Generally they are grown with various growth factors to try to make change in the desired cell type before transplantation. The originality of the approach taken here is to have transplanted cells still undifferentiated. Doctors assumed that these cells were able to migrate more easily to brain areas where their presence was necessary and then differentiate them. Brain examinations made on grafted rats showed, in fact, that stem cells had increased in areas of the brain associated with memory in the space.

A delicate technique

These results suggest that transplants of foetal cells could one day be used to treat Alzheimer's disease or other brain diseases associated with aging. Already, stem cell transplants have been performed in patients suffering from strokes and patients with severe hereditary neurological diseases. These stem cells were used also for Huntington's disease which is incurable.

However, these techniques are certainly not devoid of hazards and unproven results obtained in Parkinson's disease should be used with caution. While some patients showed improvement with this graft others made abnormal movements that made their life more difficult than before. It appears that this complication is related to the proliferation of transplanted cells, which are secreted in excess of dopamine, a substance important for the coordination of movement.

The way the cells are cultured prior to transplantation is certainly a great influence on the results, which would require a large number of animal experiments to clarify the method to be followed before venturing to treat patients. The development of tumours is also an obvious risk that can be identified with hindsight.

Sources:

University of Illinois, Chicago

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