FROM:
The Associated Press State & Local Wire
November 30, 2001, Friday, BC cycle
7:36 PM Eastern Time
SECTION: State and Regional
HEADLINE: Reseachers demonstrate ability of embryonic stem cells to
develop into
brain cells
DATELINE: MADISON, Wis.
A research team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, working with
German
researchers, claims to have demonstrated the ability of human embryonic
stem
cells to develop into brain cells.
The work, published in next month's edition of Nature Biotechnology,
is
described as a critical step toward a payoff for human embryonic stem
cell
technology - an endless supply of transplantable neural cells and tissue
to
repair spinal cord injuries and cell-based diseases like Parkinson's.
The researchers noted, however, that the process is years away from
being
tried in humans.
The scientists, headed by Su-Chun Zhang, assistant professor of
anatomy and
neurology at the UW Medical School, showed that the blank-slate stem
cells taken
from early human embryos can, in a laboratory dish, become cells that
develop
into brain and spinal cord cells.
Transplanted into the brains of baby mice, the precursor cells showed
their
ability to differentiate into neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes -
the
types of cells in the brain and spinal cord needed to repair a damaged or
ailing
brain.
"This is a very important step. The cells work," Zhang said.
Co-authors of the paper include James A. Thomson and Ian D. Duncan,
also of
UW-Madison, and Marius Wernig and Oliver Brustle of the University of
Bonn
Medical Center. Thomson was the first scientist in the world to
successfully
grow human embryonic stem cells in the laboratory.
Researchers would have to treat a condition such as Parkinson's in an
animal
model such as primates before the technology could be attempted in
humans.
PAGE 2
The Associated Press State & Local Wire November 30, 2001
"We are nowhere near clinical application," Zhang said. "It will still
be
some years before we can even try this in people."
The new work was conducted largely at the WiCell Institute in Madison,
and is
being continued at the UW-Madison Waisman Center.
The study was financed by the Myelin Project of Washington, D.C. and
the
Consolidated Anti-Aging Foundation of Naples, Fla.
On the Net:
University of Wisconsin-Madison: http://www.wisc.edu/
LOAD-DATE: November 30, 2001
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