Manipulating stem cells to repair brain damage

A scientist from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is hoping to unlock the potential of stem cells as a way of repairing neural damage to the brain.

Rachel Okolicsanyi, from the Genomics Research Centre at QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, said unlike other cells in the body which are able to divide and replicate, once most types of brain cells die, the damage is deemed irreversible.

But Okolicsanyi is manipulating adult stem cells from bone marrow to produce a population of cells that can be used to treat brain damage. Her research has been published in the journal Developmental Biology.

“What I am looking at is whether or not stem cells from the bone marrow have the potential to differentiate or mature into neural cells,” she said, indicating the cells in the brain “make everything - from the structure of the brain itself to all the connections”.

She aims to achieve this by manipulating heparin sulfate proteoglycans - a family of proteins found on the surface of all cells - to “encourage the stem cells to show a higher percentage of neural markers, indicating that they could mature into neural cells rather than what they would normally do”.

“We will manipulate these cells by modifying the surrounding environment,” Okolicsanyi said. “For example, we will add chemicals such as complex salts and other commonly found biological chemicals to feed these cells, and this will either inhibit or encourage cellular processes.

“When the chemicals we add influence the stem cell in different ways, it will help us understand the interactions between proteins and the resulting changes in the cell.”

In the long term, Okolicsanyi hopes to introduce stem cells into the brain which would be manipulated to repair damaged brain cells. “The idea, for example, is that in stroke patients where the patient loses movement, speech or control of one side of their face because the brain’s electrical current is impaired, these stem cells will be able to be introduced and help the electrical current reconnect by bypassing the damaged cells,” she said.