Growing Motor Neurons in the Lab with Stem Cells

In order to understand motor neuron disease (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), some stem cell scientists are using embryonic stem cells to study the early stages of nerve development and the growth and differentiation of neural cells. The hope is to discover what goes wrong in ALS that causes the progressive demyelination of the axons. Unfortunately, as axons can be as long as a meter and take considerable time to grow, there are logistical difficulties with such research that mean answers will not be quickly found.

Questioning Stem Cell Transplant Safety

Once sufficient populations of motor neurons have been cultured the scientists will be looking at questions such as when the best time to transplant new cells might be, how to facilitate the survival of transplanted cells, and how the cells will know which muscles to connect to. It is also important however to identify the early stages leading to motor neuron death as, without knowing what causes cell death, any transplanted neural stem cells may simply suffer the same fate.

Turning ALS Patients’ Skin Cells into Motor Neurons

Scientists working at Harvard managed, in 2008, to take skin cells from ALS patients and culture them firstly into stem cells and then into motor neurons. These reprogrammed cells were then genetically identical to the patients’ own cells and behaved as such, allowing the researchers to investigate the development of the disease with much closer observation than can be carried out in patients themselves. One major discovery from such research is the role of glial cells in supporting motor neuron function, bringing scientists closer to answering the question of whether the motor neurons are being killed or committing suicide.

Stem Cells Target Damaged Areas of CNS

Other stem cell studies have found that neural stem cells appear to be able to hone in on damaged areas of the nervous system thus making them a possible drug-delivery mechanism at a future date. Science may then contribute to the development of ALS treatments in a different way than might be imagined, with stem cells as models or delivery systems rather than requiring transplants of stem cells for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.