US scientists grow brain cells killed by Alzheimer's
Scientists have made a breakthrough that could help slow the progress of Alzheimer's disease.
They have grown the type of brain cells killed by Alzheimer's, which could help to develop treatments or pave the way for brain cell transplants to treat the memory loss associated with the disease.
Researchers in America turned stem cells derived from skin into batches of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons - which are critical to memory retrieval - by adding chemical growth factors.
John Kessler, who led the study at Northwestern University in Chicago, said: "This is a population of cells that dies very early in the disease and are critical for memory function, so understanding why these cells die, and what might keep them from dying will be exceedingly important for understanding and then treating Alzheimer's disease."
Dr Kessler and his co-author Christopher Bissonnette took six years to come up with the genetic key to produce the new neurons, which were transplanted into mice and shown to function normally. Their research was published in the journal Stem Cells.
The ability to make the cells also means researchers can quickly test thousands of drugs to see which ones may keep the cells alive.
Professor Clive Ballard, director of research at Alzheimer's Society, said: "We now need further research to find out whether these stem cells actually work in the brain."
