WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, NICOLAS P. ROUGIER
Neurons made from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can both send and receive nerve impulses when transplanted into the mouse brain, according to a report published today (November 21) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery provides some of the strongest evidence that hESC-derived neurons, which could be used to treat a variety of neurological disorders such as epilepsy, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease, can fully integrate and behave like regular neurons when transplanted into the brain.
“We’ve known for decades that [transplanted neurons] can receive information,” said Jason Weick of the University of Wisconsin, who was the lead author on the study. Once the cells are in the brain, he explained, their electrical activity can be simply recorded. The missing part of ...
