By tracking the fate of a group of immature cells that persist in the adult brain and spinal cord, Johns Hopkins researchers discovered in mice that these cells undergo dramatic changes in ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
A study reported N…
Researchers at Kansas State University have successfully transplanted cells from one species to another without triggering an immune system rejection response or requiring drugs to suppress the immune system. This hopeful news for transplant medicine is reported in the online edition of the journal Experimental Neurology, published by Elsevier. Researchers transplanted umbilical cord matrix stem cells from a pig into the brain of a live rat, and for reasons they as yet do not understood, the recipient’s immune system did not detect nor reject the foreign cells, which survived for more than six weeks. No drugs were used to suppress the immune response.