Injecting Survival

Neurons are specialised cells that form the building blocks of our central nervous system. In conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, there’s a loss of working neurons, which can seriously affect brain function and general quality of life. Human stem cells have shown promise for the treatment of brain disease and injury, and now a 3D scaffold technology has been developed that not only promotes the reprogramming of stem cells into neurons but also supports them. The neurons grow within a mesh of tiny polymer fibres (seen here as grey tubes) by attaching to the fibres and branching out (stained red), creating a network of connections that communicate with each other using electrical signals, as in life. These neuron-populated scaffolds were then injected into the brains of mice and the cells were seen to integrate with brain tissue, with better survival rates than neurons that were injected individually.

Marking the start of Parkinson's Awareness Week

Written by Katie Panteli

• Image by Prabhas Moghe, Rutgers University
• Dept. of Engineering, Rutgers University and Dept. of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, NJ, USA
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, March 2016