A medical breakthrough has been recently achieved by neuroscientists that could open up new avenues regarding brain injury treatment. People who are suffering neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, as well as people who have been in accidents which affected their brain are the ones who will benefit from this research. Here's how the neuroscientists' experiment went.
It's a given fact that brain cells are meant to last. Once it dies new ones aren't going to be created. But this is not to say that the brain as a whole is incapable of creating new cells. After all, the hippocampus - the region of the brain responsible for learning and memory - is doing just that.
Research On Brain Injury Treatment Successfully Carried Out In Mice
However, these are just exceptions. Through this cell production in certain brain areas, scientists began to ask if other regions in the organ could be aided in neurogenesis, a process involved in the growth and development of nervous tissue. So they conducted an experiment by planting embryonic neurons into mice with a damaged brain.
"What we did there is proof of concept," said neuroscientist Madalena Götz. "We took the best type of neurons, chose at a specific time, and then we put in the lesioned brain." Götz said that the experiment is to find out how well this procedure can work, the Huffington Post reported
The neurons came from healthy brain cells of a mouse embryo; specimens were then tagged with a fluorescent protein for tracking and were introduced to an adult mouse with damaged visual cortex. The scientists then observed the neuron's growth. And after four weeks, the transplanted cells formed connections with other parts of the brain responding to stimuli much like a normal neuron would opening up new doorways regarding brain injury treatment.
Researchers Find That New Neurons Could Follow Old Pathways Of Dead Brain Cells
To Götz, however, the most thrilling aspect is those brain regions that doesn't typically incorporate new neurons can still be activated through wiring new neurons, Cosmo Magazine reported. The study said that the pathways that guide a neuron's growth persist even after that cell is gone. This would allow new neurons to follow the path which helped the now dead brain cells grow in the first place.
Promising as the study may be, experts say that the research needs to be expanded in order to reach human trials. There are a lot of complications when it comes to brain injury treatment as factors like affected regions, neurons involved, scar tissue formation and inflammations are just some of the many hurdles that convolute the healing process. Despite these restrictions, the study is still a significant addition to the data on how to someday cure complicated diseases and injuries affecting a person's brain.
