Earlier within my blog posts, I talked about the benefits of cloning and how cloning can help those who have diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's. There is still a lot of debate on using techniques to clone, but in the mean time is there another way to help treat these degenerative diseases? According to Science Daily, scientists transplanted embryonic neurons into the brains of newborn mice and to their astonishment, these embryonic neurons survived. It turns out that a type of brain cell linked to many different neurological disorders (GABA-secreting interneurons) can be added in significant numbers into the brain and can survive without causing any harmful affects. What the scientists found to be most amazing is that these embryonic neurons survived even when added in large numbers. For years they thought that the brain could only hold a certain amount or had a limited capacity for these cells, but this experiment done with the mice proved their theory wrong.
In laboratory rats, the insertion of these GABA-secreting interneurons showed that transplanting these cells into the brain can increase plasticity, reduce seizures, and reduce Parkinson's-like symptoms in rats. They can also help to decrease pain sensation.
If research is pursued within this area, maybe we won't need to use cloning for nerve degenerative diseases. Even though these experiments show that transplanting GABA-secreting interneurons in rats can treat degenerative diseases in rats, this does not mean that it can do the same in humans.There is a chance that it will.
No comments:
Post a Comment