One research group took human stem cells and stuck them in the brains of mice with a mouse-version of Alzheimer’s disease. It gave the rodents a mental boost on a battery of memory tests. Eight weeks after the surgery, the treated mice showed just as much curiosity toward new toys as healthy mice, while the mice who got a mock treatment couldn’t seem to remember which toys they’d played with before. The new cells seemed to stimulate the mouse’s neural immune cells, cutting down on the gunky plaques linked with Alzheimer’s. Further research is needed tell us if this encouraging result in mice will translate to the human brain in the future.
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McGinley, L. M., Kashlan, O. N., Bruno, E. S., Chen, K. S., Hayes, J. M., Kashlan, S. R., … Feldman, E. L. (2018). Human neural stem cell transplantation improves cognition in a murine model of Alzheimer’s disease. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 14776. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-33017-6