Our goal is to develop a cellular strategy for repairing the damage seen in children's myelin disease, Multiple Sclerosis and other neurological diseases.

 
British charities prepare to boost the UK's lead in stem cell research.Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Millions in grants for embryo stem cell research

"Millions of pounds of funding for research on stem cells from human embryos is expected to be announced in the next few months as at least four universities gear up to consolidate Britain's reputation as the world capital of stem cell and cloning research."

posted by Charles Tupper Jr at 11:24 PM

 
ScienceDaily Magazine -- Neural Stem Cells Move To Damaged Areas Of Brain After Injury; Adult Mammalian Brain Has Potential To Heal Itself, Says Scientist Primitive neural cells in the brains of laboratory rats respond to acute brain injuries by moving to the injured area and attempting to form new neurons, according to University of Michigan neurologist Jack M. Parent, M.D. Understanding how this self-repair mechanism works could someday help physicians reduce brain damage caused by strokes or neurodegenerative diseases.
posted by Charles Tupper Jr at 1:40 PM

 
With this letter, I wish to bring to your attention work that may be of
some relevance to diseases of demyelination. Aspects of this work you can
find on the website: http://www.nonpharmaceutical.com/

Specifically, several people with multiple sclerosis have shown
considerable improvements with the consumption of alkaline magnesium
bicarbonate solution. The principle behind this improvement is complex. It
involves neutralisation of the inflammatory response in the brain by
negating the acidity of lysosomes in inflammatory cells.

CMRI NOTE: Unsubstantiated to date.

posted by Canadian Myelin Research Initiative at 11:49 PM

 
Dr. Jacek Kwiecien of McMaster writes:

Today I spoke to Dr. Ira Black, (MD), neurologist, Chair of the Department
of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School,
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. I had met Dr. Black at
the Neural Stem Cell workshop in France in April. He coaxed, in a simple
way, stromal cells from the rat and apparently, human bone marrow to become
neurons with high (80%) efficiency. He published this work in the Journal
of Neuroscience Research in 2000 and suggested I try (I already talked to
Dr. Doering about it) to isolate stromal cells from bone marrow to start
with. He asked me to call him back after the Neuroscience Meeting, in a
week and a half so that we can discuss stromal marrow cells in adult shakers
to see whether they would form myelin. He was successful in making neurons
from these cells both in vitro and in vivo in normal rats but not
oligodendrocytes. It is logical for me (and he agrees) to hypothesize that
if non-neuronal cells can be made to become neurons, they may respond to the
environment of the CNS of adult, or other dysmyelinated or demyelinated CNS
and differentiate into oligodendrocytes. I do not have a proof of principle
here, but this experiment can be quickly performed given the fact that cells
are easy to obtain and we can transplant them into the LES rats when we are
ready. I am quite excited about this possibility, provided it works because
bone marrow is easily accessible, abundant tissue in the body, and the
stromal cells are not only easy to expand in culture but also can be
manipulated to become certain cell type before transplantation. We will see
how it develops.

As you probably know, there was a substantial noise about it in the media in
August, a researcher from Montreal isolated/developed neural stem cells from
a mouse skin. This work was published in Nature Medicine and the author is
the invited speaker to the Neural regeneration meeting in California in
December. I am anxious to talk to her about ways she made skin a source of
neural stem cells and whether her cell lines thus obtained can become
oligodendrocytes.

posted by Canadian Myelin Research Initiative at 11:29 PM

 

CELLULAR PLASTICITY IN THE CNS OF ADULT DYSMYELINATED RATS.

J.M. Kwiecien, K.H. Delaney, J. Wang, S. Jiang, M.P. Rathbone, D.L. Kirkham, L.C. Doering. Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine and Department of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

The Long Evans Shaker (LES) and Bouncer Long Evans (LE-bo) rats lack myelin in the CNS but have lifespan similar to that of normal laboratory rat. The LES has a dysfunctional MBP gene with a large retrotransposonal insertion in the non-coding DNA sequence flanking the exon 3. The LE-bo phenotype may be related to identical mutation in the MBP gene but the LES and LE-bo phenotypes are distinct. In a study of kinetics of glial cell proliferation in the spinal cord, the maximum suppression of mitotic activity is delayed in the LES, at 8 weeks of age, and in the LE-bo, at 16 weeks, and is never complete. Then mitotic activity increases and peaks at 16-20 weeks in the LES and at 28 weeks in the LE-bo. Ultra-structurally, severe dysmyelination and progressive accumulation of a membranous material in the perikaryon of oligodendrocytes coincides with futile attempts at myelination. Immature oligodendroglia are prevalent in both adult mutants. Although myelination is arrested in the LES at 40-69 weeks, it is unabated in the LE-bo up to 45 weeks of age. Widespread axonal sprouting is evident in the CNS of adult LES and LE-bo. The right 13th thoracic dorsal nerve root (T13) of adult LES rats, was cut and re-sutured to its point of entry in the spinal cord. After 3 weeks, a crystal of DiI was placed on the end of a 2-3 mm stump of the right T13. Morphology of the DiI fluorescence at the level of T13 indicates abundant regeneration of central axons of right T13 DRG into the right dorsal horn. Neural cell cultures from the subependymal region of the lateral ventricle of adult rat brain were established and cells surviving in nutrition-depleted conditions formed floating neurospheres exposed to a combination of bFGF and EGF mitogens. 5 mL of a supension of neurospheres, was injected into the spinal cord at the T13 level of 16 week old LES. After 4 weeks, some of transplanted cells were associated with myelin sheets around adjacent axons. The LES and LE-bo rats are animal models suitable for studies on cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating regenerative processes in the adult CNS including axonal regeneration and remyelination. Supported by: The Canadian Myelin Research Initiative, The Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, The J.P. Bickell Foundation, The Department of Pathology and Molecular Medicine and Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University.


posted by Charles Tupper Jr at 11:23 PM