This just blew my little mind today. It was thought that our neurons would die with us or before us in the presence of neurodegenerative disease, right? Maybe not. Given this is just discovered in mice but they have found that neurons can be extracted and reused after the original host brain dies. This is being called groundbreaking.

I can see it might make stem cells a mere side step in treating brain disease. It raises some rather profound questions in both science and ethics, imho. What it really makes me wonder is how can our brain just go into a free fall of programmed cellular death when clearly it is designed/evolved beyond the life span of an organism? It seems we already have the ability to stop this Parkinsonsim thing within us already, doesn't it? It also further supports what scientists are starting to note in clinical trials with neurotrophics...that maybe our cells are more impaired or rendered dysfunctional, but are not dying.

Any other thoughts?


Lifespan of neurons is uncoupled from organismal lifespan.

First interspecies neuron transplant means longer brain life.