Researchers have turned back the clock on the brain cells of Alzheimer's patients and claim to have generated--for the first time--embryonic-like stem cells taken from frozen brain tissue samples.
The induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines, created by a team at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute and collaborators at Columbia University Medical Center, could help scientists understand the early stages of Alzheimer's at a cellular level even before symptoms arise.
Investigators derived the new stem cell lines from non-cryoprotected brain tissue of patients with Alzheimer's and four other neurodegenerative diseases from the New York Brain Bank at Columbia University that had been stored for up to 11 years. The research, published Jan. 7 in the journal Acta Neuropathologica Communications, shows that disease-specific iPS cells can be derived from biobanked tissue that has been frozen for many years.
Typically, scientists generate iPS cells by reprogramming cells from a skin or blood sample. First produced from mouse cells in 2006, iPS cells are adult cells that have been reprogrammed to an embryonic-like state. The value of iPS cells--like embryonic cells--is that they can differentiate into any type of cell in the body.
Many neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's can only be definitively diagnosed by postmortem brain examinations. The investigators are hopeful that their discovery will allow researchers to better diagnose Alzheimer's by comparing live brain cells from Alzheimer's patients with the brain cells of non-Alzheimer's patients. These reconstituted cells could also provide a platform for drug testing on cells from patients diagnosed with the disease.
- here's the Acta Neuropathologica Communications study (PDF)
- read the press release