PNAS: Transplanted stem cells repair brain damaged by stroke in rats

Repairing nerve damage has never been easy for scientists and physicians, but it remains the ultimate goal in many neuroscience studiesFor example, transplanting neuronal stem cells into damaged or diseased areas of the brain has been touted as a potential treatment option despite some difficultiesNow, researchers at Lund University in Sweden may have found a way to treat stroke rats with dermal neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS)Recently, researchers at Lund University in Sweden successfully restored the mobility and touch of a stroke rat by reprogramming human skin cells into nerve cells and transplanting them into the brains of ratsThe study is now published in the research journal PNASZaal Kokaia, a professor of neurology at the center of thestudy, said that six months after transplantation, new cells could be seen repairing the damage caused by stroke to the brains of ratsHe conducted the research with senior professor Olle Lindvall and researcher Sara Palma-Tortosaseveral previous studies by Lund's team and other researchers have shown that nerve cells from human stem cells or reprogrammed cells can be transplanted into the brains of rats with strokesHowever, it is not known whether the transplanted cells will be able to properly form connections in the rat brain in a way that returns normal movement and sensationthe findings of the new study, published in PNAS, an article entitled "Activity in grated human iPS cell-derived cortical neurons integrated in stroke-injured rat brain motors" (translated as "Integrated activity of human iPS cell-derived neurons in the brain of stroke-damaged rats" ( the method of re-programming movement of human cells in the brain) can be reprogrammed by the ability to restore activity and touchresearchers have used tracking techniques, electron microscopes and other methods, such as light, to turn off the activity of transplanted cells to show that they are indeed properly connected in damaged neural circuitsThey have seen that the fibers from the transplanted cells have grown to the other side of the brain, the side of which has not transplanted any cells to create a connectionNo previous studies have proved thisZaal Kokaia and colleague Olle Lindvall, who has studied the brain for decades, were surprised by the findings"It's worth noting that it actually fixes the neural connections that have been lost in the brain that have been damaged by stroke," Olle Lindvall said The study has given rise to new hope that, even if there is still a long way to go to achieve this goal, it could be a new healthy nerve that will replace dead nerve cells in stroke patients in the future researchers used human skin cells that were reprogrammed in the lab to become nerve cells and then transplanted them into the brain cortex of rats, the most commonly damaged part after a stroke Now, the researchers will conduct further research researchers also want to learn more about how transplanted cells affect the other half of the brain They also want to gain a deeper understanding of how transplants affect intellectual function, such as memory Possible side effects are also studied Of course, safety is extremely important for future clinical use of cell transplants