Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects over one million people in the United States and around five million people worldwide. At this time there are no effective therapies available for preventing or slowing disease; only methods for reducing symptoms exist. Regenerative medicine, using stem cells, is a promising new approach to treat debilitating neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. To help develop a novel therapy for treating Parkinson’s disease, researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center have created an induced pluripotent stem cell line derived from mouse astrocytes (AsiPS). The AsiPS cells are capable of differentiating into the three germ layers as well as specific neuronal cell types such as neuronal progenitor cells, neurons, and astrocytes. Further development of the AsiPS cells could provide a potential therapeutic tool for regenerating neuronal tissue and treating Parkinson’s disease. Furthermore these cells are also useful tool for identifying novel compounds capable of inducing neuronal cell production in a patient.

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Web site: http://unemed.atticdev.ist.unomaha.edu/content/...

Disease: Central Nervous System