In the past decade or so, my haircut has gone out of style; but more importantly, our understanding of the human brain has been drastically revolutionized. For years, findings from neurological research had suggested that the human brain was incapable of generating new neurons. Recent findings suggest the existence of neural stem cells in the central nervous system (CNS) which consists of the brain and spinal cord. These stem cells are self-renewing cells that have the ability to develop into an array of different cells we find in the CNS. What does this mean to us?
Well, this suggests that we could potentially generate new tissue from our very own stem cells to be transplanted into our own bodies. This could lead to new developments in neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's Disease and Parkinson's disease. It also potentially opens up the possibilities of recovery from central nervous system injuries. Stem cell research in general could also lead to the generation of whole organs. If all goes right, the notion of our bodies rejecting a transplanted organ from another donor will seem downright foolish. But remember, this is kind of assuming a lot. As a nation, we still have to deal with ethical concerns regarding the use of stem cells for research and therapy. Well, I'm going to assume that this is all taken care of, and that all the research and transplant technologies that I will describe are all legitimate.
It's actually really amazing how scientists go about finding stem cells in embryos and adult brains. We really owe it to the researchers as well as the animals on which their work depends. Most of these animals are mammals like ourselves which means that the structures of our brains are quite similar. We depend on these similarities to draw conclusions about our own brains. Another assumption we can make is that animals that are more similar to us (like other primates) have more similar brain structures than do mice. But the availability of rodents to the scientific community in terms of both numbers as well as the availability of information gathered on rodents contributes to the wide use of them in biological research.
*Click here for more on the scientific use of animals and their tissues.*
There are a lot of things that scientists can learn from animal tissue.. especially about stem cells! But how exactly do they go about finding stem cells? I mean it's not like we can just open up a brain and say, "Bingo! I found the stem cells!" There's a lot that goes into growing just one neuron that does what it's supposed to.
So, let's all put on our labcoats, pull our pants above our navels, and start exploring the nitty gritty of the itty bitty stem cell. Shall we?
*Definitions of the really technical terms used in this section will be provided if you click here or on italicized terms.