Brain Fix: Stem cells supply missing enzyme
By Brian Vastag
Implanted stem cells grew into a range of beneficial brain-cell types and greatly extended the lives of mice missing an important enzyme, researchers report. Furthermore, stem cells from mouse brains, from human-fetal brains, and from human embryos proved equally adept at battling the mouse version of Sandhoff disease. In people, that congenital enzyme deficiency is similar to Tay-Sachs disease and causes severe mental retardation and early death.
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Evan Y. Snyder, who led the work at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, Calif., says that the implanted cells knew exactly how to repair the brain: “Even the dumbest stem cell is smarter than the smartest neurobiologist.”