Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is the motor neuron disease and is considered as one reason of death among the children. It is also the common genetic disorder.

So far, there is no treatment of the disease. However, the Italian scientists claim that stem cell treatment can be an answer of the disease. And now, Giacomo Comi and colleagues, at the University of Milan, have generated data using a mouse model of SMA to suggest that spinal cord neural stem cells (NSCs) might be a possible treatment for individuals with SMA.

NSCs from mice in which a green marker protein was expressed only in nerve cells known as motor neurons (the cells that are defective in SMA) were transplanted into the fluid bathing the spinal cord of mice with an SMA-like disease. The transplanted cells developed into a small number of motor neurons and the treated mice showed improved muscular function and increased lifespan, when compared with untreated mice.

Source: GenomicsProteomics.com


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