Scientists at Cornell University have developed a new technique that may help to eliminate some of the obstacles that have made it difficult to transplant cells into the brains of people suffering from neurological diseases. Scientists had hoped that stem cells transplants would provide them with a way of treating conditions such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease, however research has shown that stem cells appear to have difficulty in differentiating into brain cells, and that the brain is not a particularly hospitable environment for transplanted cells. Drs. Melissa J. Mahoney and W. Mark Saltzman mixed a synthetic material with cells creating something that they call “neo-tissue”, which mimics the normal environment of developing tissues. Thus, giving transplanted cells “a better opportunity to integrate with the patient’s own tissues.” The researchers believe that it may also be possible to develop neo-tissues containing molecules that will prevent the immune system from rejecting tissues – such an achievement would eliminate the problem of graft versus host disease. Recent tests of the “neo-tissue” on animals proved successful, with the researchers being able to control the differentiation of the stem cells into the desired brain cells.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Nature Biotechnology 2001; 19:934-939
