The Brain's Silent Majority

Glial cells make up almost 90% of the brain, yet these cells have been a mystery to scientist for many years. Once thought of as just "nerve cement" there is now evidence that glial cells do much more. The new evidence in astrocytes, a certain type of glial cell, is shedding new light on how neurons actually work and how neurodegenerative diseases happen.

This article is very interesting as it concentrates on the 90% of the brain that most people don't know about. As you go up the evoltionary complexity ladder, the more complex the organism, the more glial cells they have. If the scientific community can figure out exactly the role glial cells play in the brain, there may be substantial breakthroughs in treating diseases such as Alzheimers, ALS, glaucoma, MS, and many others.

Link
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/3ZeMYw/stanmed.stanford.edu/2009fall/article6.html

http://stanmed.stanford.edu/2009fall/article6.html

Using Sugar to Repair Neurons

A new technique for repairing damaged nerve cells was created at Purdue University this year. They created filaments made of sugar, just like the sugar found in candy. They are made by coating a sucrose filament with corn-based degradable polymer (poly L-lactic acid) then dissolving the sugar with water, leaving only the polymer tubes.

These tubes can encourage new nerve cell growth by giving them a structure to thrive off of. The device is good scaffolding for nerve cells to grow in and around because they have many pores that help the growing cells by storing nutrients and removing wastes, and the long fibers have a similar looking structure to nerve cells allowing better growth. This was mainly intended for use in the peripheral nervous system, but it is also showing potential in helping repair blood vessels as well as neurons. The current therapy for those with peripheral nerve damage is to take a nerve segment from another part of the body and bridging the gap with the donor nerve, but this takes sensation away from the donor site.

This article interests me because it is a simple material that can be manufactured for little material cost, and it has a possibility of helping many people regain sensation and motion in limbs where they otherwise would be paralyzed.

http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2009a/090226ShiNerves.html

Stephen Infanger
VTPP 434 - 501