Are you thinking what I'm thinking? That we might be creating a race of super mice that will one day take over the world?
Posted on 08/20/2006 1:53:07 AM PDT by neverdem
Adult human brain cells can generate new tissue when implanted into in the brains of mice, new research reveals. The findings could pave the way to new therapies for a host of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, the researchers say.
Furthermore, lab tests show that the mature brain cells have the versatility to divide many times in culture and develop into a wide range of specialised cell types.
Researchers at the University of Florida, US, showed for the first time that common human brain cells are adaptable and self-renewing – qualities normally associated with stem cells.
Dennis Steindler and his colleagues transplanted adult human brain cells into mice and found that they could successfully generate new neurons and incorporate themselves in a variety of brain regions.
The researchers also coaxed a single adult brain cell to divide into millions of new cells in culture. “We can, theoretically, take a single brain cell out of a human being and generate enough brain cells to replace every cell of the donor’s brain,” says Steindler.
The new source of human brain cells could be used to repair or replace damaged tissue in degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, the researchers suggest.
“Anything that removes the need to use foetal or embryonic tissue [to clone new tissue] is very interesting because that’s where the controversy lies,” says David Dexter, a specialist in Parkinson’s disease at Imperial College, London, UK, who was not involved in the study.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Good. See to it that the entire democratic party gets a refill. Might make a few more republicans that way.
Ah then their is hope for Political Leftists yet. It may be possible their stupidity is not terminal. Of course it is probable a mouse brain will be far too large for their pin sized heads. We can hope that with time, Science may find a process to miniatures down to a flea bran so that the transplantable brain will be small enough to fit a Leftist's head.
Whew! For a second, I thought the author's name was Helen Thomas!
(no HT pics please)
The Scarecrow will be in deep gratitude, to the Wizard of Oz. Now, if I only had a brain...
Study Shows Cancer Cells May Revert
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FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list, or the much more selective stem cell list.
prolife ping
Ping
Are you thinking what I'm thinking? That we might be creating a race of super mice that will one day take over the world?
Yes, reading Free Republic reverses brain damage!
(oh, that isn't what the article's about? Well, it's true anyway!)
The human brain is vastly unknown. You were taught what was known and theorized at the time.
Excellent, nd.
Thank you. Hope for all of us! Be interesting to see what happens in the development track with this and the Alzheimer's and like vaccines.
Thanks, again.
kin ah git me some a these here brain cells - ping
Brain cells are touchy things. If they have other brain cells to regenerate with, they might cooperate. And that leaves Kerry, among others, out in the cold.
good. ping.
Git 'er done!
Oh, no, deja vu one more time. Remember Michael Jackson singing an Academy Award nominated song back in 1972?
"Ben, most people would turn you away,
I don't listen to a word they say..."
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