A New Technique Transforms Human Skin into Brain Cells
The brain is one of the most vital organs in the human body, so damage to the brain from injury or aging can have major impacts on people’s quality of life. Neurological disorders represent some of today’s most devastating medical conditions that are also difficult to treat. Among these is Alzheimer’s disease. Usually, research involving Alzheimer’s rely on brain cells from mice. Now, neurobiologists from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) have developed a method that could allow the use of human cells instead of animal ones to help understand neurological diseases better.
In their study, which was published in the journal Neuron, the researchers found a way to transform human skin cells into stem cells and program them into microglial cells. The latter make up about 10 to 15 percent of the brain and are involved in the removing dead cells and debris, as well as managing inflammation. Micgrolia are instramental in neural network development and maintenance, explained researcher Mathew Blurton Jones, from UCI’s Department of Neurobiology & Behavior.
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