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DURHAM, N.C. – Zinc has been found to play a critical role in regulating communication between cells in the brain, possibly governing the formation of memories and controlling the occurrence of epileptic seizures. A collaborative project between Duke University Medical Center researchers and chemists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been able to watch zinc in action as it regulates communication between neurons in the hippocampus, where learning and memory processes occur – and where disrupted communication may contribute to epilepsy. "We discovered that zinc is essential to control the efficiency of communication between two critical populations of nerve...

A research breakthrough has proven that it is possible to reprogram mature cells from human skin directly into brain cells, without passing through the stem cell stage. The unexpectedly simple technique involves activating three genes in the skin cells; genes which are already known to be active in the formation of brain cells at the fetal stage. The new technique avoids many of the ethical dilemmas that stem cell research has faced. For the first time, a research group at Lund University in Sweden has succeeded in creating specific types of nerve cells from human skin. By reprogramming connective tissue...

Brain cells don't need to be in your head in order to learn something, a new study suggests. The results show brain cells living in a lab dish can be taught to keep time. The neurons, relocated from the outer layer of a rat brain to the inside of a lab dish, could fire for specific amounts of time depending on how they were trained. The findings shed light on a puzzle scientists are still grappling with - exactly how the brain tells time. Much of what humans do in their everyday lives relies on the brain's ability to perceive...

The identification of a new marker is making it possible to track brain stem cells for the first time, U.S. researchers report. The achievement is already opening doors to new research into depression, early childhood development and multiple sclerosis, the team's senior author said. "This is a way to detect these cells in the brain, so that you can track them in certain conditions where we suspect that these cells play a certain role," explained Dr. Mirjana Maletic-Savatic, an assistant professor of neurology at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. "This is also very applicable for situations where...

THURSDAY, July 20 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers say they're gaining greater insight into how the brain's own stem cells may trigger one of the deadliest forms of cancer. The stem cells -- which can turn into a variety of brain cells -- appear to carry a receptor that pulls in a specific chemical. If the cells get over-stimulated by the chemical, that may lead to tumor formation. The discovery, "might lead to better understanding of early growth" of brain malignancies, said study co-author Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, a professor of neurological surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. As a result,...

University of Florida researchers have shown ordinary human brain cells may share the prized qualities of self-renewal and adaptability normally associated with stem cells. Writing online today (Aug. 16) in Development, scientists from UF's McKnight Brain Institute describe how they used mature human brain cells taken from epilepsy patients to generate new brain tissue in mice.  Furthermore, they can coax these pedestrian human cells to produce large amounts of new brain cells in culture, with one cell theoretically able to begin a cycle of cell division that does not stop until the cells number about 10 to the 16th power....

Drinking alcohol boosts the growth of new nerve cells in the brain, research suggests. But while this might sound good in theory, the Swedish team believe these new cells could contribute to the development of alcohol dependence. Mice fed moderate quantities of alcohol grew extra brain cells, but also showed a preference for alcohol over water. The Karolinska Institute research appears in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology. Brain growth Lead researcher Professor Stefan Brene said: "We believe that the increased production of new nerve cells during moderate alcohol consumption can be important for the development of alcohol addiction and other...

Scientists Create Brain Cells, Predict Possible Rapid Development of Treatments for Alzheimers and Parkinson's WASHINGTON, June 14, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - American researchers have found a method of growing batches, or lines, of fully mature brain cells. This has often been predicted as the end of such neurological diseases as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s. The ethical new technique mimics the brain’s own natural process of changing stem cells into neurons. For the moment, the research has been confined to mice, but the researchers are hopeful that their work can soon be transferred to human patients. Bjorn Scheffler, a neuroscientist at Florida...

Light exercise a tonic to keep the brain young Study for first time shows lifelong exercise decreases cellular aging in the brain GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- People don't have to run marathons to keep their brain cells in shape -- regular, light activity may do the trick. In the first study to show that lifelong exercise decreases cellular aging in the brain, scientists from the McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida say that moderately active rats have healthier DNA and more robust brain cells than their less active counterparts. The research was presented today (Nov. 12) at the Society...

Making Brain Cells Scientists have announced they've found a way to coax adult hair follicle stem cells into becoming brain cells. Hair-brained? Scientists at AntiCancer, Inc. of San Diego have coaxed adult stem cells in mice into turning into neurons, the nerve cells of the brain. Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors say, the results of their work suggests a new "source of undifferentiated multi-potent stem cells." Stem cells are different from other cells because they can change into specialized cells the body needs, the body maintain and repair itself. Many scientists are working to...

Nanoparticles originally developed for industry have an unexpected effect: They triple or even quadruple the life of rat brain cells, suggesting that they could help extend human lifespan and decrease age-related health problems. It has been predicted that nanotechnology will revolutionize modern medicine, through such things as new materials that are more easily absorbed by human cells. Discovering the health effects of one such material, a nano-oxide particle, involved a collaboration between a molecular biologist and a nanoscientist at the University of Central Florida. Antioxidant nanotechnology The two researchers are Beverly Rzigalinski, an assistant molecular biology professor, and Sudipta Seal,...