Stem Cells Rescue Nerve Cells by Direct Contact

A group of Swedish doctors experimenting with stem cells has uncovered something especially cool- implanted stem cells can actually repair diseased and dying neurons. The exact method hasn't been uncovered yet, but it's been suggested that the new cells develop into neurons that will communicate with and replace the dying cells. An alternate proposal suggests that the developing stem cell secretes neurotrophic factors that in a sense heal the stem cell's dying neighbors. Lab tests showed that the new stem cells formed gap junctions with dying brain tissue, and that only the tissue with these new gap junctions survived, while the rest of the diseased neurons inevitably died. The experiments were performed by monitoring implanted mice and human stem cells in brain tissue cultures and by using rodents with brain disease/trauma as substitutes for real human brain illnesses.

This "hits a nerve" with me, so to speak, because I myself plan on researching neurodegenerative diseases when I grow up. This article is exciting but frustrating all at once; I don't condone having children just to harvest their organs. As Kirk once said to Spock after the crew of the Enterprise risked their lives to save him, "The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100201171754.htm