From the FSMA web site:
Some clinicians and researchers consider
stem cell transplantation as a potential therapeutic strategy. And now,
Giacomo Comi and colleagues, at the University of Milan, Italy, have
generated data using a mouse model of SMA to suggest that spinal cord
neural stem cells (NSCs) might be a possible treatment for individuals
with SMA.
In the study, NSCs from mice in which a green marker protein was
expressed only in nerve cells known as motor neurons (the cells that
are defective in SMA) were transplanted into the fluid bathing the
spinal cord of mice with an SMA-like disease. The transplanted cells
developed into a small number of motor neurons and the treated mice
showed improved muscular function and increased lifespan, when compared
with untreated mice. Further analysis indicated that the major effect
of NSC transplantation was that the transplanted cells improved the
survival and function of the motor neurons already in the mice, making
them more like normal motor neurons (at the gene expression level). The
authors therefore suggest that in the future, NSCs might be used in the
development of therapeutic protocols for the treatment of SMA and other
motor neuron diseases. View the full article here.
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