Neural stem cell growth stimulated
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Researchers have found a way to spur the growth of neural stem cells in the brains of adult mice with an eye toward harnessing the brain’s innate capacity for repair to help people with diseases such as Alzheimer’s, according to a report Thursday in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Paul Patterson of Caltech and his colleagues injected a natural protein from the body -- leukemia inhibitory factor, or LIF -- into a part of the brain of adult mice where stem cells reside. That fostered the production of up to six times the usual count of adult neural stem cells.
