Mainland research on stem cells could point the way to an effective treatment for Huntington's disease, an inherited incurable degenerative brain disorder.
According to research published in the international journal Cell Stem Cell, a team of scientists, mostly from Shanghai and Beijing, were able to restore nerve circuits in the damaged brains of mice by injecting them with neurons cultivated from human embryonic stem cells.
The lead author of the study, neuroscientist Dr Su-Chun Zhang from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the research was promising, but it would take much time and effort to work up from the mouse model to treatment for human Huntington's patients.
Huntington's is a genetic disorder that affects movement and cognitive abilities. Patients degenerate gradually over an average of 15 years until they die.
The disease is triggered when special cells known as Gaba projection neurons degenerate, destroying key nerve circuits in the brain.
The scientists used human embryonic stem cells to produce large batches of these neurons and injected them into the brains of mice whose Gaba projection neurons had been destroyed. To their surprise, the new neurons not only meshed well with the mice brains, they also restored the nerve circuitry, improving their movement and co-ordination.
Zhang said neuroscientists used to think that once the nerve circuits in the brain were damaged, it was impossible to re-establish them with transplanted cells.
