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I don't really understand most of this paper, but the combination of epigenetics and neural stem cells was too interesting to ignore.



Epigenetics and neural stem cell commitment

Hai-Liang TANG, Jian-Hong ZHU
Department of Neurosurgery, Fudan University, Huashan Hospital, Shanghai 200040, China
National Key Laboratory for Medical Neurobiology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China

Neural stem cell is presently the research hotspot in neuroscience. Recent progress indicates that epigenetic modulation is closely related to the self-renewal and differentiation of neural stem cell. Epigenetics refer to the study of mitotical/meiotical heritage changes in gene function that cannot be explained by changes in the DNA sequence. Major epigenetic mechanisms include DNA methylation, histone modification, chromatin remodeling, genomic imprinting, and non-coding RNA. In this review, we focus on the new insights into the epigenetic mechanism for neural stem cells fate.

To read the entire paper: http://www.neurosci.cn/article/v23/241.pdf

When the time comes for me to get a drug that cures my MS, I really hope that I don't have to take a test or write an essay about what causes MS in order to get my pill, because most of what I read might as well have been written by a space alien.

I have no clue as to what a lot of "research" is describing. This paper is also way above my knowledge base.

gwa

Oh guys, it's all so simple!
Anyone can see that, given the right type of cake, the pale blue Blobby thing can turn into the purple star shaped thing, the yellow splat thing, or the blue crinkly thing – you only have to look at the pictures to see that!



Seriously though, the last couple of sentences seem to be written in an Earth language, and it looks as though they are getting closer to being able to control what stem cells will turn into, and perhaps being able to provide the right signals to get our own stem cells to get to work. Also, because the adult brain has such a limited supply of appropriate cells, feeding them the right signals might mean we can steer them towards becoming the cells we need.





I think.

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Dom