MS damage washed away by stream of young blood

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MS damage washed away by stream of young blood

- 14 January 2012

- Magazine issue 2847 <http://www.newscientist.com/issue/2847>. *Subscribe

and save* <http://www.newscientist.com/subscribe?promcode=nsarttop>

A FOUNTAIN of youthful cells reverses the damage found in diseases like

multiple sclerosis, a study in mice reveals.

Nerve cells lose their electrically insulating myelin sheath as MS

develops. New myelin-generating cells can be produced from stem cells, but

the process loses efficiency with age.

Ruckh at the University of Cambridge, and colleagues, have found a

way to reverse the age-related efficiency loss. They linked the

bloodstreams of young mice to old mice with myelin damage. Exposure to

youthful blood reactivated stem cells in the old mice, boosting myelin

generation.

White blood cells called macrophages from the young mice gathered at the

sites of myelin damage. Macrophages engulf and destroy pathogens and

debris, including destroyed myelin (*Cell Stem Cell*, DOI:

10.1016/j.stem.2011.11.019<http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S193\

4590911005807>

)

" We know this debris inhibits regeneration, so clearing it up is

important, " says team member Amy

Wagers<http://www.hms.harvard.edu/dms/bbs/fac/wagers.php>of Harvard

University.

Neil Scolding <http://www.bristol.ac.uk/neuroscience/people/person/16490>at

the University of Bristol, UK, who was not involved in the new work,

says reactivating ageing stem cells may be a more realistic approach for

treating MS than transplanting stem cells from a donor.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328475.400-ms-damage-washed-away-by-stre\

am-of-young-blood.html