It's taken many years and more than a bit of brainpower, but researchers at the health center of Central Florida have finally found a way to create neuromuscular connectors between muscle and spinal cord cells, using only stem cells. Led by bioengineer James Hickman, the team pulled off the feat with help from Brown health center tutor



if (lexico_globals.googleafc.ads.content.length)
{
document.write(lexico_globals.googleafc.ads.contenttop);
document.write(lexico_globals.googleafc.ads.sponsoredlinks);
document.write(lexico_globals.googleafc.ads.content[2]);
document.write("");
Emeritus Herman Vandenburgh, who collected muscle stem cell samples from adult volunteers. After close examination, they then discovered that under the right conditions, these samples could be combined with spinal cord cells to form connectors, or neuromuscular junctions, which the brain uses to control the body's muscles. UCF's engineers say the technique, described in the December issue of the journal Biomaterials, marks a major advance for the flowering of "human-on-a-chip" models -- systems that fake organ functions and have the undeveloped to drastically accelerate medical fishing expedition* and drug development. These junctions could also pay dividends for inquest on Lou Gehrig's disease or spinal cord injuries, though it remains unclear whether we can expect to see these gravy anytime soon.

Researchers create spinal cord connectors from human stem cells, heralding finding 1995 by houghton mifflin harcourt publishing company. published by houghton mifflin harcourt publishing company. all rights reserved.view results from: dictionary | thesaurus | encyclopedia | all reference | the web
share this: appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Medical Xpress  |  Science Direct  | Email this | Comments

More: - Read More