Authors:
Nobuko Uchida, Kevin Chen, Monika Dohse, Kelly D. Hansen, Justin Dean, Joshua R. Buser, Art Riddle, Douglas J. Beardsley, Ying Wan, Xi Gong, Thuan Nguyen, Brian J. Cummings, Aileen J. Anderson, Stanley J. Tamaki, Ann Tsukamoto, Irving L. Weissman, Steven G. Matsumoto, Larry S. Sherman, Christopher D. Kroenke, and Stephen A. Back
Summary:
Shiverer-immunodeficient (Shi-id) mice demonstrate defective myelination in the central nervous system (CNS) and significant ataxia by 2 to 3 weeks of life. Expanded, banked human neural stem cells (HuCNS-SCs) were transplanted into three sites in the brains of neonatal or juvenile Shi-id mice, which were asymptomatic or showed advanced hypomyelination, respectively. In both groups of mice, HuCNS-SCs engrafted and underwent preferential differentiation into oligodendrocytes. These oligodendrocytes generated compact myelin with normalized nodal organization, ultrastructure, and axon conduction velocities. Myelination was equivalent in neonatal and juvenile mice by quantitative histopathology and high-field ex vivo magnetic resonance imaging, which, through fractional anisotropy, revealed CNS myelination 5 to 7 weeks after HuCNS-SC transplantation. Transplanted HuCNS-SCs generated functional myelin in the CNS, even in animals with severe symptomatic hypomyelination, suggesting that this strategy may be useful for treating dysmyelinating diseases.
Source:
Science Translational Medicine; Vol. 4, Issue 155, 155ra136 (10/10/12)