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Putting the Grey Matter to Good Use
The Gold Coast Bulletin
01 February 2006
A QUEENSLAND professor leading the way in stem cell research says scientists have made significant progress in their fight against brain disease.
Queensland Brain Institute's professor Perry Bartlett has found stem cells in the brain can be isolated and regenerated.
"We now know making new nerve parts occurs in many parts of the brain," he said.
"One part of the brain associated with memory, a region called the hippocampus, also makes nerve cells. We have been able to isolate the cell from this area, which is exciting."
Professor Bartlett said the hippocampus `tells us where we are, what we do and how we remember incidents in the recent past'.
"It's an important organ, in terms of memory. So we think the ability to make new nerve cells in this part of the brain is actually fundamental to forming those memories," he said.
Professor Bartlett's research gained international attention in 2001. His team at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research was the first to identify and isolate adult neural stem cells from the brains of mice.
Proving that these stem cells could be stimulated to generate new nerve cells has been the latest breakthrough.
The research is expected to help people who suffer Alzheimers, dementia, Huntington's disease and other degenerative brain illnesses.
It has the ability to restore normal brain function by stimulating the production of new nerve cells without transplantation.
"This is more than just a bystander phenomena," said the professor. "More and more evidence is indicating that if you don't have the ability to make nerve cells in the hippocampus, perhaps things like depression and even dementia might follow."
Researchers will soon learn how to regulate the nerve cells, which in turn could treat depression. It could also be used to repair damaged spines or cure some types of blindness.
"Ten years ago, it was thought the brain was immutable and not capable of doing anything new. Now we know the brain makes new nerve cells," said the professor.
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