Wisconsin scientists grow critical nerve cells ( k of development in mind Zhang and his...)

Wisconsin scientists grow critical nerve cells

k of development in mind, Zhang and his team deduced that there is only a thin sliver of time - roughly the third and fourth week of human development - in which stem cells could be successfully prodded to transform themselves into spinal motor neurons.

In addition to the narrow time frame, it was also critical to expose the growing stem cells to an array of complex chemical cocktails. The cocktails constitute naturally secreted chemicals - a mix of growth factors and hormones - that provide the exact growing conditions needed to steer the cells down the correct developmental pathway. "You need to teach the [embryonic stem cells] to change step by step, where each step has different conditions and a strict window of time," says Zhang. "Otherwise, it just won't work."

To differentiate into a functional spinal motor neuron, the stem cells advanced through a series of mini-stages, each requiring a unique growing medium and precise timing. To start, the Wisconsin team generated neural stem cells from the embryonic stem cells. They then transformed the neural cells into progenitor cells of motor neurons, which in turn developed in a lab dish into spinal motor neuron cells.

The newly generated motor neurons, according to Zhang, exhibit telltale electrical activity, a sign that the neurons, which normally transmit electrical impulses, were functional.

The spinal motor neuron cells have survived in culture in the lab for more than three months, says Xuejun Li, an assistant scientist in Zhang's group, and the lead author of the study.

To determine the exact recipe for motor neuron growth, Li foraged labs worldwide to obtain the growth factors and other natural chemicals needed to guide cells from one stage of motor neuron development to another. But once past a certain point, Li found that the cells kept veering off toward different cellular destinies. After hundreds of unsuccessful variations of growth factors and morphogens, Li was s
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Source:University of Wisconsin-Madison

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( k of development in mind Zhang and his...)Wisconsin scientists grow critical nerve cells