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STUDY: Rat Embryos Survive After Adult Marrow Stem Cell Transplants BY JAMIE TALAN - STAFF WRITER Newsday, NY - May 11, 2004, 4:59 PM EDT Scientists have transplanted adult stem cells from the bone marrow of rats into the brains of rat embryos and found that thousands survive into adulthood, raising the possibility that someday such a process could prevent or treat developmental abnormalities in the womb. Dr. Ira Black, chairman of the department of neuroscience at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, said the cells took on the properties of brain cells, migrating to specific regions and taking up the characteristics of neighboring cells. "They exhibited the same flexibility in the living brain as we had observed in culture," said Black, director of the school's Stem Cell Center. His findings were published Wednesday in the Journal of Neuroscience. Over the past few years, scientists have debated the theory that bone marrow stem cells, which are plentiful throughout the human life cycle, could possess chameleon properties, and with coaxing, become many types of brain cells. Many reports have disputed this, saying that the bone marrow stem cells merely fuse onto a nearby brain cell. Other scientists working with adult bone marrow stem cells say that the stem cells don't actually trigger new cells to grow in the adult brain, but do work like factories to pump new life into the remaining cells. Black and his colleagues injected adult bone marrow stem cells into the brain ventricles of embryonic rats and watched them migrate throughout the brain. When they reached their destination, they expressed the same genes as other cells in the area. And thousands per cubic millimeter survived into adulthood, Black said. Black and his colleagues used a specific type of bone marrow cell called a stromal cell, taken from the leg bones of adult rats. Once in the ventricles, they migrate along the same fiber tracks that neuronal stem cells travel. "We see this potentially as an appropriate treatment for prenatal disease, mental retardation and congenital conditions," Black said. The hope is that a patient's own bone marrow might someday be the source for replacing brain cells lost to neurological illness and brain trauma, experts say, eliminating the need to use embryonic stem cells. Dr. Alexander Storch of the University of Ulm, Germany, recently took bone marrow stromal cells from six healthy people and converted the cells into immature neural stem cells. He presented the findings at the American Academy of Neurology meeting last month. "A single cell culture could grow all major brain cell types," said Storch, who used specific growth factors to help them differentiate. They lost half of the cells during the conversion process, yet still generated a high number of new cells. The Storch team is now transplanting the cells into mice with multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's and stroke. In the stroke study, the labeled adult stromal cells migrated to the area surrounding the stroke damage, he said. And they had all of the chemical, electrical and functional properties of neurons. "It shows that bone marrow stromal cells may have a potential to treat or ameliorate certain neurological diseases," added Dr. David Hess, chairman and professor of neurology at the Medical College of Georgia. Hess wrote a review article on bone marrow stem cells in last month's Archives of Neurology. The stem cell research world "is polarized over these cells," he added. "We shouldn't give up on them." SOURCE: Newsday, NY - May 11, 2004 http://tinyurl.com/yq3vx * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn