The human brain contains about 100 billion neurons, and these cells, as is known, do not regenerate. Therefore, it is so important to take care of your brain health from an early age, avoid exposure to toxic substances, and bad habits. Many diseases of the nervous system are caused by dysfunction or loss of a large number of nerve cells. For example, in Parkinson’s disease, neurons in a part of the brain known as the substantia nigra do not produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. In multiple sclerosis, the myelin sheath of neurons is damaged. Degeneration of nervous tissue is observed in Alzheimer’s disease, other types of dementia, and brain and spinal cord injuries. For many years, scientists have been trying to create methods for obtaining new neurons, but nerve cells are very diverse, and until recently, only a few dozen of their types could be obtained in vitro (“in a test tube”).
However, as reported by News Medical Life Sciences, Dr. Treutlein’s team has so far successfully obtained more than 400 types of nerve cells. Scientists worked with a culture of induced pluripotent stem cells, which were first generated from blood cells. Then, using genetic engineering, certain neuronal regulatory genes were activated in these cells. This was an extremely painstaking work, during which the scientists repeated more than 200 series of experiments.
Scientists hope that in the future the nerve cells created in this way can be used as a replacement cell therapy for neurological diseases. The neurons obtained in the laboratory are also important for experimental studies of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, schizophrenia, sleep disorders, multiple sclerosis.
