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Telomerase-immortalized human neural stem cells in treating of Parkinson's rats |
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Friday, 14 January 2005 |
By Lingsong Li Peking University Stem Cell Research Center
Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) would be the future for regenerative medicine, but it is so far still difficult to efficiently and specifically differentiate ES cells into certain cell types for treating human diseases. Tissue-specific stem cells, neural progenitor cells (NPCs) for example, appear to have the advantage in this regard. However, they cannot expand efficiently to provide sufficient numbers of cells for clinical use. We therefore tested whether NPCs can be immortalized by ectopic expression of human telomerase enzyme. We provide evidence that immortalized NPCs indeed expanded well and stable in vitro. They showed normal karyotype, normal behavior and did not generate tumors after transplanted into nude mice. Such cells held capacity to differentiate into functional neurons both in vitro and in the animal brain. Moreover, to our surprise, only pre-differentiated neurons, but not NPCs, can improve the condition of Parkinson’s rats by providing dopamine. This study suggests that therapeutic effect of stem cell transplantation may depend on the differential stage of the grafted cells; and immortalized NPCs might be a useful cell source for treating human neurological diseases.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 06 October 2005 )
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