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VA DOCTORS DISCOVER HOW TO KICK-START AN AGING
BRAIN -- Putting two specific types of neural
cells into an older
brain triggers creation of cells linked to
learning and memory.
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Study Shows Novel Way to Trigger New Neuron
Production in the Aging Brain
DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers have shown for the first time that putting
two specific types of neural cells directly into an aging brain can
kick-start creation of brain cells linked to learning and memory.
It has been shown over the last decade that brain cells replicate, a
finding that had run counter to previously accepted dogma. The area
where neuron-forming stem cells perform much of this replication is the
hippocampus, part of the brain linked to memory and learning, and an
area affected in older people as well as those with Alzheimer’s disease.
Scientists are now exploring how brain cells replicate – a process
called neurogenesis – and how to improve this when it appears to slow or
stop all-together.
In older people and people with Alzheimer’s disease "neural stem cells
are sitting there but not dividing, so they are not making new neurons,"
said Ashok K. Shetty, Ph.D., professor of neurosurgery at Duke and
medical research scientist at the Durham Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical
Center. "We hope that by making more neurons, we can improve learning
and memory" in compromised patients.
Shetty and colleagues have shown that implanting specific brain cell
precursors into the hippocampus region of aging rats increases
neurogenesis, a first step in working toward therapies for humans. The
results of their work appear in the August issue of the journal Stem
Cells.
Two types of cells were harvested from the spinal cords of rats and then
grafted into the aging rat hippocampus. After three weeks researchers
saw an increase in neurogenesis in the rats that received the cell
implants compared to rats that did not receive any treatment and rats
that received implantation surgery but not receive stem cells. This is
the first evidence that introduction of these two kinds of neural stem
cells stimulate neurogenesis in the hippocampus.
The hippocampus has been linked to not just memory formation and storage
in the brain, but also depression and neurodegenerative diseases such as
Alzheimer’s.
"Any strategies for improving neurogenesis in aging animals may be
helpful to humans," said Shetty. The research was supported by the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute on Aging as well
as the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the
Department of Veterans Affairs.
The researchers believe that the precursor cells secreted nerve growth
factors that stimulated the inactive stem cells of the aging hippocampus
to start dividing again. They also did a study that injected nerve
growth factors directly to see if they would stimulate neurogenesis.
Publication of study results is expected by the end of the year.
Shetty said researchers next plan to do a similar study to see if the
grafting causes increased neurogenesis on a long-term basis, and if the
increase in cell generation can impact learning and memory.
The first author of this study is Bharathi Hattiangady, Ph.D., a
research associate in the department of surgery at Duke and medical
research scientist at the VA Medical Center in Durham, N.C. Another
member of the Duke/VA team is Bing Shuai, M.D. The other collaborators
include Jingli Cai, Ph.D., Turhan Coksaygan, Ph.D., and Mahendra S. Rao,
Ph.D., all in the Stem Cell Unit of the National Institute on Aging at
the NIH at the time of the study.
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Larry Scott --
