In a finding that has implications for people with brain and nervous system diseases, researchers have been able to repair brain damage in rats by injecting a growth factor that mobilized stem cells to come to the site of the injury and restore function. You may be able to teach an old and wounded brain new tricks. The scientists had destroyed those parts of the brain responsible for movement in the rats. The experiments are apparently the first to show that brain damage can be reversed in an adult animal, a finding that may have implications for stroke victims, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease patients and people with nervous system and spinal cord injury. Scientists Mobilized Rats' Stem Cells Based on tissue analysis of the brains, the scientists, led by James Fallon, professor of anatomy and neurobiology at the University of California at Irvine, believe the protein was able to mobilize immature cells inside the brain, called stem cells, which then replaced the damaged nerve cells.
Stem cells are like clay which can be molded to fit numerous purposes.
During the formation of a mammal, stem cells divide, migrate to specific parts of the body and develop into specialized tissues, such as brain, liver, hair and skin. Stem cells exist during the development of embryos but decrease in number before birth and throughout life and only exist in small numbers in the adult brain. The stem cells are already in the brain and other organs in small numbers. They can be stimulated in the brain to develop by a growth factor without the need for transplanting stem cells, embryonic tissue or altered cells from outside. The work is being reported in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.