Brain cells grown in laboratory

[Matt]

World first: brain cells grown in laboratory

By Steve Connor, Science Editor

14 June 2005

Scientists have grown fully mature brain cells in a laboratory for the first time, using a technique that mimics the natural process of brain regeneration.

It promises to open the door to new ways of treating and possibly curing debilitating brain diseases such as Parkinson's, epilepsy and Alzheimer's.

The scientists said they were able to produce virtually unlimited quantities of brains cells, which could revolutionise transplant medicine as well as leading to new drugs to stimulate the regrowth of damaged nerves.

Bjorn Scheffler, a neuroscientist at Florida University who made the breakthrough, said the procedure involved mimicking the natural process through which key stem cells in the brain orchestrate partial regeneration of the brain.

"Our study shows for the first time the entire process that goes on in our brain for life. We can, in a dish, recapture the process in front of our eyes," Dr Scheffler said. It was not the first time that scientists had shown stem cells can be manipulated in the lab to produce mature brain cells, he added. "But nobody has been capable of replicating the process from the very first step to the very last step - it's unique to get the whole process happening before your eyes."

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was done with mice but the scientists believe it is only a matter to time before they are able to reproduce the same process of development with human brain cells.

The findings, in effect, show it is possible to construct an assembly line for manufacturing unlimited quantities of human brain cells, or neurons, Dr Scheffler said. "We can basically take these cells and freeze them until we need them. Then we thaw them, begin a cell-generating process and produce a ton of new neurons."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/scienc...sp?story=646759

[Jelly2003]

Sounds promising.