Researcher grow brain stem cells from bone marrow stem cells

Finding could eventually help treat Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, paralysis

From staff and wire reports

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Researchers have discovered a new way of creating brain stem cells, the cells experts hope may heal spinal cord damage or brain diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.

In research published in this week's Journal of Neuroscience Research, Dr. Ira Black of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey discovered that stem cells pulled from adult bone marrow can grow into neural stem cells.

While such cells have not been proven to repair damage in either the spine or the brain, Black hopes further trials will prove that they can.

"I think what we're all learning now is that stem cells, regardless of source, are simply far more flexible and consequently far more useful than we had ever dreamt," said Black.

Stem cells are a kind of "master cell" that grow into specific types of cell -- bone, cartilage, fat or muscle, for instance. They have been taken from the brain, the spine, the nervous system, and from embryonic stem cells -- a process that has fueled ethical debates -- but researchers say pulling them from bone marrow is a much less invasive procedure that avoids any ethical issues.

In his research, Black's team cultured the bone marrow stem cells in a special substance composed of antioxidants and growth factors. By adjusting the composition of the culture medium, the researchers were able to turn 80 percent of the bone marrow cells into nerve cells.

Black then transplanted those new cells into healthy mice and found that the mice survived. He said further research would involve implanting the cells in diseased mice. Similar tests on humans are still years away.

If successful, Black's research could mean that patients with damaged cells could get replacement cells from their own bodies, rather than from another person or from cells grown in a lab. That eliminates the danger that the patient's body would reject the outside cells.

Black admits his research is very preliminary, and he says it is essential that all clinical trials continue.

"We are not going to get the critical answers, the answers that are so central to recovery of function for patients, unless we proceed across all of these fronts," said Black.

The spinal cord is surrounded with nerve cell fibers that communicate with the brain. In most spinal cord injuries the spinal cord is not severed but crushed, destroying the communication between nerve fibers and the brain. Black and other researchers are trying to rebuild that communication with neural stem cells.

"Recent work using neural stem cells has indicated that stem cell transplantation to the injured spinal cord may help recovery, so ... this is really occurring at a very encouraging time and we hope that these particular stem cells will also make a contribution," Black said.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Christopher Reeve Foundation.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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February 5, 1999
Stem cells promise big breakthroughs in treating disease
January 21, 1999

Journal of Neuroscience
The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Stem Cell Research and Applications

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