{"id":6364,"date":"2015-10-08T17:22:47","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T00:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vermont.salk.edu\/?post_type=disclosure&p=6364"},"modified":"2015-11-03T17:27:33","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T01:27:33","slug":"researchers-learn-how-to-grow-old-brain-cells","status":"publish","type":"disclosure","link":"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/de\/news-release\/researchers-learn-how-to-grow-old-brain-cells\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers learn how to grow old brain cells"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nLA JOLLA\u2013For the first time, scientists can use skin samples from older patients to create brain cells without rolling back the youthfulness clock in the cells first. The new technique, which yields cells resembling those found in older people\u2019s brains, will be a boon to scientists studying age-related diseases like Alzheimer\u2019s<\/a> and Parkinson\u2019s.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis lets us keep age-related signatures in the cells so that we can more easily study the effects of aging on the brain,\u201d says Rusty Gage<\/a>, a professor in the Salk Institute\u2019s Laboratorium f\u00fcr Genetik<\/a> and senior author of the paper, published October 8, 2015 in Cell Stem Cell<\/a><\/em>.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cBy using this powerful approach, we can begin to answer many questions about the physiology and molecular machinery of human nerve cells\u2013not just around healthy aging but pathological aging as well,\u201d says Martin Hetzer<\/a>, a Salk professor also involved in the work.\n<\/p>\n

\"Fibroblasts\"<\/p>\n

Salk scientists developed a new technique to grow aged brain cells from patients\u2019 skin. Fibroblasts (cells in connective tissue) from elderly human donors are directly converted into induced neurons, shown.<\/p>\n

Klicken Sie hier<\/a> f\u00fcr ein hochaufl\u00f6sendes Bild.<\/p>\n

\nBild: Mit freundlicher Genehmigung des Salk Institute for Biological Studies\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nHistorically, animal models\u2013from fruit flies to mice\u2013have been the go-to technique to study the biological consequences of aging, especially in tissues that can\u2019t be easily sampled from living humans, like the brain. Over the past few years, researchers have increasingly turned to stem cells to study various diseases in humans. For example, scientists can take patients\u2019 skin cells and turn them into induced pluripotent stem cells, which have the ability to become any cell in the body. From there, researchers can prompt the stem cells to turn into brain cells for further study. But this process\u2013even when taking skin cells from an older human\u2013doesn\u2019t guarantee stem cells with \u2018older\u2019 properties.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAs researchers started using these cells more, it became clear that during the process of reprogramming to create stem cells the cell was also rejuvenated in other ways,\u201d says Jerome Mertens, a postdoctoral research fellow and first author of the new paper.\n<\/p>\n

\nEpigenetic signatures in older cells\u2013patterns of chemical marks on DNA that dictate what genes are expressed when\u2013were reset to match younger signatures in the process. This made studying the aging of the human brain difficult, since researchers couldn\u2019t create \u2018old\u2019 brain cells with the approach.\n<\/p>\n

\nGage, Hetzer, Mertens and colleagues decided to try another approach, turning to an even newer technique that lets them directly convert skin cells to neurons, creating what\u2019s called an induced neuron. \u201cA few years ago, researchers showed that it\u2019s possible to do this, completely bypassing the stem cell precursor state,\u201d says Mertens.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe scientists collected skin cells from 19 people, aged from birth to 89, and prompted them to turn into brain cells using both the induced pluripotent stem cell technique and the direct conversion approach. Then, they compared the patterns of gene expression in the resulting neurons with cells taken from autopsied brains.\n<\/p>\n

\"Jerome<\/p>\n

\nJerome Mertens and Rusty Gage<\/p>\n

Klicken Sie hier<\/a> f\u00fcr ein hochaufl\u00f6sendes Bild.<\/p>\n

\nBild: Mit freundlicher Genehmigung des Salk Institute for Biological Studies\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nWhen the induced pluripotent stem cell method was used, as expected, the patterns in the neurons were indistinguishable between young and old derived samples. But brain cells that had been created using the direct conversion technique had different patterns of gene expression depending on whether they were created from young donors or older adults.\n<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe neurons we derived showed differences depending on donor age,\u201d says Mertens. \u201cAnd they actually show changes in gene expression that have been previously implicated in brain aging.\u201d For instance, levels of a nuclear pore protein called RanBP17\u2013whose decline is linked to nuclear transport defects that play a role in neurodegenerative diseases\u2013were lower in the neurons derived from older patients.\n<\/p>\n

\nNow that the direct conversion of skin cells to neurons has been shown to retain these signatures of age, Gage expects the technique to become a valuable tool for studying aging. And, while the current work only tested its effectiveness in creating brain cells, he suspects a similar method will let researchers create aged heart and liver cells as well.\n<\/p>\n

\nOther researchers on the study were Apua C.M. Paquola, Manching Ku, Emily Hatch, Lena Bohnke, Shauheen Ladjevardi, Sean McGrath, Benjamin Campbell, Hyungjun Lee, Joseph R. Hardy, J. Tiago Goncalves, Tomohisa Toda and Yongsung Kim of the Salk Institute; Jurgen Winkler of Friederich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg; and Jun Yao of Tsinghau University.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe work and the researchers involved were supported by grants the G. Harold & Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation<\/a>, der JPB Foundation<\/a>, der Die gemeinn\u00fctzige Stiftung von Leona M. und Harry B. Helmsley<\/a>, Annette Merle-Smith, CIRM<\/a>, der German Federal Ministry of Education and Research<\/a> und die Glenn Stiftung f\u00fcr medizinische Forschung<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":6371,"template":"","faculty":[86,76],"disease-research":[127,124,162],"class_list":["post-6364","disclosure","type-disclosure","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","faculty-martin-hetzer","faculty-rusty-gage","disease-research-alzheimers-disease","disease-research-neuroscience-and-neurological-disorders","disease-research-parkinsons-disease"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nResearchers learn how to grow old brain cells - Salk Institute for Biological Studies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/de\/news-release\/researchers-learn-how-to-grow-old-brain-cells\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Researchers learn how to grow old brain cells - Salk Institute for Biological Studies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"LA JOLLA\u2013For the first time, scientists can use skin samples from older patients to create brain cells without rolling back the youthfulness clock in the cells first. 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