Mostly, stroke victims don’t receive timely medical treatment that could prevent brain damage. To address this, a team of scientists at Ohio State University have developed a technology to retrain cells to work to repair damaged brain tissues. The development is an advancement that is anticipated to help patients someday by way of regaining speech, cognition and motor function even when given days after an ischemic stroke.
To develop the technology, the research team employed a process developed at the university itself called tissue nano transfection in order to introduce genetic material into the cells. The process allows the cells to reprogram skin cells to alter, for example, vascular cells to help repair damaged brain tissue for stroke patients.
The findings of the study is published in the online edition of the journal Science Advances.
Meanwhile, for clinical trials in mouse, brain cells pre-conditioned with specific genes and injected into the stroke-affected brain, where these genes promote to form new blood vessels via overhaul and repair of damaged brain tissues.
“Interestingly, the genetic code of skin cells can be rewritten so that they work as blood vessel cells,” stated one of the research associates. In fact, when the newly formed blood vessels are deployed into the brain, they function to grow fresh, healthy vascular tissue to bring back normal blood supply and help in the repair of damaged brain tissues.
In fact, for clinical trials in mice, the use of cell therapy helped them regain 90% of motor function, found researchers.
Moreover, mice displayed high recovery rate because the cells that are injected into the affected area release healing signals in the form of vesicles that aids to restore damaged brain tissue.
