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..Hope from Swedish research ..
http://www.irishmedicalnews.ie/artic...rticleID=20314

A leading Irish researcher has welcomed as a step forward new Swedish stem cell research, which may help patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers have developed new ways to grow brain cells in the laboratory using neural stem cells in a bid to treat patients with Parkinson’s disease, according to latest research from Sweden.

Prof Ernest Arenas of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm presented his research to the EuroSTELLS “Stem Cell Niches” conference in Barcelona last month.

Prof Arenas’s team studied the development of neurons in animals to determine the important biological molecules in the brain that were necessary for the cells to grow and function efficiently. It was shown that when the protein Wnt5A, together with a second protein noggin, was included in cultures of stem cells, far more dopaminergic neurons were produced than when these ingredients were not present. The researchers almost completely reversed the behavioural abnormalities in the brains of the animals whose sustantia nigra had been damaged.

According to the researchers, verification of this approach with human cells is ongoing and if the study is successful, it may lead to a clinical trial.Prof Frank Barry of the Regenerative Medicine Institute at NUI Galway told IMN that there has been strong interest in developing new treatments for Parkinson’s disease using stem cells.

“Progress in the past has been up and down but this latest development looks quite interesting,” commented Prof Barry. The application of stem cells is being refined in terms of Parkinson’s disease and appears to be quite sharply defined in this research, he added.

“The use of neural stem cells as opposed to embryonic stem cells means that there would not be worries about neurons differentiating abnormally or uncontrollably,” he explained.


Danielle Barron

danielleb@imn.ie