Human brain tissue transplanted into mice that lack a key part of their brains can grow to occupy most of the vacant space and wire into the animals’ nervous systems. That’s according to a study published on 16 September in Nature1, which describes the most extensive integration of human brain cells into an animal so
Blood vessels (artificially coloured) snake through a a mouse’s brain.Credit: Simon Walker-Samuel, UCL CABI/Science Photo Library For decades, many scientists have thought that a single type of starter cell gives rise to the entire brain. But experiments now challenge that fundamental picture, providing evidence that it takes not one but two flavours of progenitor cell
Osteoporosis causes thin, porous bones that are prone to fracture, but a promising cell therapy might offer a way to strengthen them.Credit: Dr Tony Brain/SPL The ten older women had, between them, broken their bones dozens of times, often after little more than a stumble. But after receiving a single infusion of their own bone-marrow
Grafts of muscle cells lead to cognitive and physical improvements in mice.Credit: Ziad M. El-Zaatari/Science Photo Library Researchers have created contracting muscle implants that can mimic some of the benefits of exercise, including improving muscle mass, strength and bone density while also slowing age-related muscle changes1. The research, published in Nature Aging on 26 August,
The brains of people with depression seem to be worse at producing new neurons than are those of people without the disorder. That’s according to a study1 that includes the most comprehensive map of the cell types in the human adult hippocampus, a brain region involved in learning, memory and emotions. For more than 20
Shinya Yamanaka in 2012, the year he won a share of a Nobel prize.Credit: Aflo/Shutterstock Shinya Yamanaka doesn’t see himself as a celebrity. But people do recognize the stem-cell researcher when he’s out for a run, often while training for a marathon, on the streets of Kyoto, Japan. Many of them call out words of
