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| Researcher Grows Brain Cells |
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| Research | |||
| Samstag, 23. Dezember 2006 um 00:20 Uhr | |||
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There are no translations available. Source: Shanghai Daily By Yan Zhen A RESEARCHER at Fudan University's Huashan Hospital has successfully grown human brain cells in a laboratory and implanted them in people with head injuries for the first time. A report on Zhu Jianhong's work was published in the November 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. While scientists around the world have grown stem cells for various organs in the laboratory, few are able to work with brain cells due to various laws and ethical rules, which don't exist in China. Zhu said he obtained his first brain cell samples from the emergency department at Huashan, where he treated a woman who had a chopstick stabbed through her eye into her inner pre-frontal cortex. He managed to isolate what he believed to be potential adult stem cells from tissue on the removed chopstick. Stem cells are the building block of the body and can be used to grow new organ or repair damaged tissue. Scientists know the types of cells that repair tissue exist in the human heart, but had never proven they exist in the brain. Zhu decided to try culturing the tissue to see if he could find stem cells. About four percent of the cells found on the chopstick were adult stem cells. Inspired by the finding, Zhu continued his research by deriving neural stem cell from 16 patients with an open skull injuries. He injected the cell cultured from his patients into mouse brains and found that they successfully differentiated into various cell types found in the nervous system. Human transplants He then split the 16 patients into two groups of eight. Cells were transplanted into the brains of one group, but not the other. The group that received the cells showed some signs of improvement not seen in the control subjects, he said. By injecting tiny magnetic particles into the stem cells before the transplant, Zhu was able to track their movements. He said the process indicted the cells migrant to the injured part of the brain. "The research achievement has good implications for new treatments for accident victims and stem cell research," said Le Weidong, a neurogenomics professor at the Shanghai Institutes of Biological Sciences. He added, however, that it will take a long time for the research to pay off in practical treatments. Hu Qingli, a Ruijin Hospital researcher and former deputy director general of the World Health Organization, said that Chinese biological research has sparked controversy in the West over ethical issues. But the country is moving forward on completing its ethical code system.
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| Zuletzt aktualisiert am Samstag, 23. Dezember 2006 um 00:21 Uhr |