Human Stem Cells Get Mice With MS Walking Withing 2 Weeks

Katie Liu
Author: Rebekah Marcarelli
Published: May 16 2014
Link: http://www.hngn.com/articles/31494/20140516/human-stem-cells-get-mice-with-ms-like-disease-walking-within-2-weeks.htm

Summary: A recent study had shown that mice that suffered from a form of Multiple Sclerosis were able to walk after being treated with stem cells that came from humans. The mice that were affected by the stem cells were showing signs of change within only two weeks. Multiple Sclerosis is an autoimmune disease, meaning it is cause by the body system attacking itself. The body’s own immune system damages the myelin sheaths and causing symptoms such as difficulty walking or impaired vision. However, in treated mice, the symptoms were reversed. Instead of the myelin sheaths becoming more and more damaged in the mice, the sheaths were shown to have started to repair itself. Among those lists of changes, the immune system’s attacks on the body were abated. However, the stem cells were rejected after a period of time in the mice’s body as expected. Despite that, the period of time the stem cells were in the body was enough to transmit signals to slow down the body’s attacks on itself and begin myelin sheath repair.

Connection: This article connects to our current unit relating to the human body systems. In this case, the article is directly related to immune system and the nervous system. The immune system is talked about in this article as damaging the myelin sheaths, leading to this disease. The myelin sheaths that are talked about make up neurons, which are part of the nervous system. This article also talks about Multiple Sclerosis, a disease which we mentioned in class. It is also an autoimmune disease and we discussed them in class as well.