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A FOUNTAIN of youthful cells reverses the damage found in diseases like multiple sclerosis, a study in mice reveals.
Nerve cells lose their electrically
insulating myelin sheath as MS develops. New myelin-generating cells can
be produced from stem cells, but the process loses efficiency with age.
Julia Ruckh at the University of
Cambridge, and colleagues, have found a way to reverse the age-related
efficiency loss. They linked the bloodstreams of young mice to old mice
with myelin damage. Exposure to youthful blood reactivated stem cells in
the old mice, boosting myelin generation.
White blood cells called macrophages
from the young mice gathered at the sites of myelin damage. Macrophages
engulf and destroy pathogens and debris, including destroyed myelin (Cell Stem Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2011.11.019)
"We know this debris inhibits regeneration, so clearing it up is important," says team member Amy Wagers of Harvard University.
Neil Scolding
at the University of Bristol, UK, who was not involved in the new work,
says reactivating ageing stem cells may be a more realistic approach
for treating MS than transplanting stem cells from a donor.
