More MS news articles for Oct 2001

Towards the reconstruction of central nervous system white matter using neural precursor cells

http://brain.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/124/11/2147

Brain, Vol. 124, No. 11, 2147-2161, November 2001
Masato Mitome (1),*, Hoi Pang Low (1), Anthony van den Pol (3), John J. Nunnari (2), Merrill K. Wolf (1,2), Susan Billings-Gagliardi (1,2) and William J. Schwartz (1)
1 Departments of Neurology, and
2 Cell Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester and
3 Department of Neurosurgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, USA

Epidermal growth factor-responsive neural precursor cells were used as donor cells for transplantation into wild-type and myelin-deficient shiverer (shi) mice.

The cells engrafted robustly within the CNS following intracerebroventricular and cisternal transplantation in neonatal mice.

The cells adopted glial phenotypes, and some functioned as oligodendrocytes, producing myelin basic protein and morphologically normal internodal myelin sheaths.

When individual shi mice received two transplants (on post-natal days 1 and 3), donor-derived cells disseminated widely and expressed myelin basic protein in central white matter tracts throughout the brain.

Correspondence to: William J. Schwartz, Department of Neurology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA 01655, USA E-mail: william.schwartz@umassmed.edu