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http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2004-10-26-1 Adult Stem Cells Become Long-lasting Brain Cells Work could lead to new treatments for diseases such as Parkinson's Betterhumans Staff 10/26/2004 2:12 PM Adult stem cells have been converted to long-lasting, dopamine-producing brain cells that could eventually be used to treat diseases such as Parkinson's. Lorraine Iacovitti and colleagues at Jefferson <http://www.jefferson.edu/jmc/> Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania had previously used growth factors <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_factor> and other nutrients to turn adult human bone marrow stem cells <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell> into neurons <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuron> . But the brain cells that the US researchers created reverted to their original, undifferentiated state within three days. Now the researchers have a new approach that's taken their work a step further. Dopamine producers By growing bone marrow stem cells in a suspension of neurospheres-cells early in development-the researchers created brain cells that didn't just look like neurons, they also expressed traits of neurons and didn't revert to an undifferentiated state. In fact, the researchers were able to create neurons that produced an enzyme called tyrosine hydroxylase that's needed to make the neurotransmitter dopamine <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine> . A second enzyme involved in dopamine production and a molecule called the dopamine transporter were also discovered in the neurons. The findings are considered important because Parkinson's disease <http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson's_disease> involves a loss of dopamine-producing neurons. "There are limitations to differentiating adult stem cells the way we want them-to get them to permanently give up being what they were meant to be and become neurons," says Iacovitti. "Maybe this is a way to grow these stem cells to get them to truly become dopamine neurons instead of just looking like neurons." The research was reported in San Diego, California at the 2004 annual meeting <http://web.sfn.org/AM2004Splash.cfm> of the Society for Neuroscience <http://web.sfn.org/> . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn