Important step could lead to Alzheimer’s treatment
Researchers in Alberta have successfully re-grown dead brain cells in rats. It’s hoped the research may eventually help Alzheimer’s patients regain their ability to remember. The researchers killed off brain cells associated with memory and then used neural stem cells to re-grow them. After six weeks of memory exercises, the mice who had re-grown brain cells did as well on memory tests as the control groups. The researchers then counted the cells to confirm the re-growth. Dr. Robert Sutherland, the 50-something researcher who led the project at the University of Lethbridge, told the Calgary Herald he expects the research will be applied to humans before he retires. The project built on research from the University of Calgary, where neural stem cells in mammals were first discovered in the 1990s.