A vast majority of cells in the brain are glial, yet our understanding of how they are generated, a process called gliogenesis, has remained enigmatic. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have identified a novel transcripitonal cascade that controls these formative stages of gliogenesis and answered the longstanding question of how glial cells are generated from neural stem cells.

The findings appear in the current edition of Neuron.

"Most people are familiar with neurons, ...

"Newark-based StemCells Inc. announced a significant milestone in regenerative medicine. They injected their purified neural stem cells into the brains of four children with a disease that results in insufficient amounts of an insulating layer called myelin around their nerves. The injected cells were able to form new myelin, providing hope that the cells might also be effective in other demyelination diseases such as multiple sclerosis."



http://cirmresearch.blogspot.com/2012/0 ... ss-in.html

Stemcell therapy for multiple sclerosis is now a reality, not just a dream, says a leading neuro-immunologist.

Gianvito Martino, director of neuroscience at San Raffaele Hospital in Milan, Italy, said although the therapy was still experimental, it was yielding some exciting results.

Professor Martino said he did not believe stemcell therapy would be the solution to MS but an important treatment option with fewer side effects.

"To have the solution, we should know the ...

http://www.neurology.org/content/76/12/1066.abstract

What do you guys think?

This has been posted before :
Professor Shilom Slavin CTCI Tel Aviv Israel
"More recently we have discovered a new, potentially more advanced approach to educate multi-potential Mesenchymal Stromal Stem Cells (MSCs) to trans-differentiate into neural stem cells and also directly to motor neurons. Committed neural stem cells can be further pushed to differentiate into astrocytes, dopaminergic neurons , and oligodendrocytes [the cells responsible for the production of myelin ...

"One of the challenges with cellular therapies is ensuring that ESCs are fully and efficiently differentiated into the correct cell type. This study sheds light on understanding how ESCs are regulated, which is essential to overcome these challenges and turn the vision of cell therapies into reality. "


http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/trainin ... 2/romanian

...Lotfi says that he has administered cells processed by Celltex to more than 20 people. “Five or six” — including Bertrand — have multiple sclerosis and “four or five” have Parkinson's disease, he says. Lotfi explains that patients sign up for treatment by contacting Novak, and that cells are prepared by removing about five grams of fat — containing roughly 100,000 mesenchymal stem cells — from the patient's abdomen. Over a three-week period, the cells ...

Purpose
Multiple sclerosis (MS) has been classically regarded as a chronic inflammatory autoimmune demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, along with a considerable pathological heterogeneity. Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a severe inflammatory, demyelinating disease, and its clinical characteristics include recurrent optic neuritis and longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis.

Current therapies provide only modest control of progressive Multiple Sclerosis and Neuromyelitis Optica.Stem cell therapy might open a light horizon in approaching to an efficient treatment in ...

I'm not sure what are the near term implications on MS, but it seems promising:

Stem Cell Transplantation Treats Brain Injuries in Rats


Rats with brain injury showed great functional recovery after the stem cell treatment. In the study conducted by a team from Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine in Sapporo, Japan, autologous bone marrow stem cells were injected into the carotid artery of the injured rats which helped the cells move right to ...