New study finds external stimulation impacts white matter development in the postnatal brain
Researchers at Children's National continue work to understand myelination
2012-08-14
(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON, DC—A team at Children's National Medical Center has found that external stimulation has an impact on the postnatal development of a specific region of the brain. Published in Nature Neuroscience, the study used sensory deprivation to look at the growth and collection of NG2-expressing oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (NG2 cells) in the sensory cortex of the brain. This type of research is part of the Center for Neuroscience Research focus on understanding the development and treatment of white matter diseases.
NG2 cells can develop into oligodendrocytes progenitor cells that generate myelin, the protective material around the axons of neurons, but this is based on functional and developmental interactions with outside stimuli. With this kind of plasticity, or ability to change and mold a cell in different ways, the researchers were able to determine that sensory stimuli can control the number and positioning of developing NG2 cells.
"Understanding how external stimulation and experience impact the development of NG2 cells means that we can try to modulate these factors to help regulate and promote the expansion of these cells. This could ultimately have an impact on white matter diseases," stated Vittorio Gallo, PhD, study coordinator and Director of the Center for Neuroscience Research at the Children's Research Institute. "We will now investigate in more detail how sensory experience can regulate NG2 cell development, particularly how experience activates specific genes and molecular pathways in these cells."
Collectively called NG2 progenitors, these cells also serve as the primary source of cells to regenerate oligodendrocytes and myelin in the postnatal brain. Without myelin, the brain does not function properly. Myelination can be impaired for a number of reasons, resulting in mental retardation and developmental disabilities. Myelination, white matter growth and repair, and the study of complex mechanisms of pre- and postnatal brain development are a key focus of the Center for Neuroscience Research at Children's National, which also houses the White Matter Diseases Program, one of the largest clinical programs in the country for treating children with disorders that cause the brain's white matter to degenerate.
INFORMATION:
Related Links
Learn more about Children's National Center for Neuroscience Research
Read more about white matter research at Children's National Medical Center
About Children's National Medical Center:
Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC, has been serving the nation's children since 1870. Home to Children's Research Institute and the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation, Children's National is consistently ranked among the top pediatric hospitals by U.S.News & World Report and the Leapfrog Group. With 283 beds, more than 1,330 nurses, 550 physicians, and seven regional outpatient centers, Children's National is the only exclusive provider of acute pediatric services in the Washington metropolitan area. Children's National has been recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as a Magnet® designated hospital, the highest level of recognition for nursing excellence that a medical center can achieve. For more information, visit ChildrensNational.org, receive the latest news from the Children's National press room, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2012-08-14
A University of Houston researcher has developed a nanoparticle coating for solar panels that makes it easier to keep the panels clean, maintaining their efficiency for longer and reducing the maintenance and operations costs.
The patent-pending coating developed by physics professor Seamus "Shay" Curran, director of UH's Institute for NanoEnergy, has successfully undergone testing at the Dublin Institute for Technology and will undergo field trials being conducted by an engineering firm in North Carolina.
Curran said the June testing in Ireland and the field trials ...
2012-08-14
If a hurricane's path carries it over large areas of fresh water, it will potentially intensify 50 percent faster than those that do not pass over such regions, meaning it has greater potential to become a stronger storm and be more devastating, according to a study co-written by a group of researchers at Texas A&M University.
Ping Chang, professor of oceanography and atmospheric sciences and director of the Texas Center for Climate Studies, along with his former student, Karthik Balaguru, now at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, are the ...
2012-08-14
URBANA – A study that examined how rural farmers in Ethiopia learn new farming techniques and adopt them on their own farms discovered that learning from a friend was a stronger motivator than learning from neighbors in close proximity.
The goal of the study was to find out how farmers in Ethiopia learn and ultimately adopt new agricultural technologies such as using fertilizers in the production of grains, trying new grain crop varieties, and installing an irrigation system to grow new high-value fruit and vegetable crops.
"One strategy used by extension in developing ...
2012-08-14
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A sedentary lifestyle is a common cause of obesity (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/obesity/DS00314), and excessive body weight and fat in turn are considered catalysts for diabetes (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/diabetes/DS01121), high blood pressure (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-blood-pressure/DS00100), joint damage (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/arthritis/DS01122/DSECTION=risk-factors) and other serious health problems. But what if lack of exercise itself were treated as a medical condition? Mayo Clinic physiologist Michael Joyner, ...
2012-08-14
Montreal, August 13, 2012 – Does the ideal ratio of couch to rug size keep you up at night? Are the exposed wires of your stereo causing you angst? Is that crocheted toilet paper cover kitschy enough to be cool? If you wonder, then you are not alone.
For Concordia University's Zeynep Arsel, such questions have led to exciting new research into buyer behaviour. The assistant professor of marketing at the John Molson School of Business teamed up with Jonathan Bean from Parsons The New School of Design in New York City to co-author a recent article in the Journal of Consumer ...
2012-08-14
New York, NY and San Diego, CA, August 13, 2012 – Despite years of research, glioblastoma, the most common and deadly brain cancer in adults, continues to outsmart treatments targeted to inhibit tumor growth.
Biologists and oncologists have long understood that a protein called the epidermal growth factor receptor or EGFR is altered in at least 50 percent of patients with glioblastoma. Yet patients with glioblastoma either have upfront resistance or quickly develop resistance to inhibitors aimed at stopping the protein's function, suggesting that there is another signalling ...
2012-08-14
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers may have discovered a new method to predict solar flares more than a day before they occur, providing advance warning to help protect satellites, power grids and astronauts from potentially dangerous radiation.
The system works by measuring differences in gamma radiation emitted when atoms in radioactive elements "decay," or lose energy. This rate of decay is widely believed to be constant, but recent findings challenge that long-accepted rule.
The new detection technique is based on a hypothesis that radioactive decay rates are influenced ...
2012-08-14
VIDEO:
This animation shows rapid transport of a single ion over about 0.37 millimeters within 8 millionths of a second. The ion is held and moved with electric fields, its transport...
Click here for more information.
Take that, sports cars! Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can accelerate their beryllium ions from zero to 100 miles per hour and stop them in just a few microseconds. What's more, the ions come to a complete stop and hardly ...
2012-08-14
NASA's Terra satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm Kai-tak affecting the northern Philippines on August 13 as the storm heads toward China for a final landfall.
Warnings are already in effect in part of the Philippines. Tropical storm Kai-tak is the fourteenth tropical cyclone of the western North Pacific season. On August 13 at 11 a.m. EDT, Kai-tak had maximum sustained winds near 40 knots (46 mph/74 kmh). It was located approximately 290 nautical miles (334 miles/ 537 km) east-Northeast of Manila, Philippines, has tracked west-southwestward at 11 knots (12.6 ...
2012-08-14
On August 13, the Atlantic tropics are quieter than they were the previous week, when four low pressure areas were marching across the ocean basin. Satellite imagery shows two lows in the Atlantic as Tropical Storm Hector spins in the Eastern Pacific Ocean with System 95E near the Mexican coast.
The NOAA GOES-13 satellite sits in a fixed orbit over the eastern U.S. and provides infrared and visible imagery of the Atlantic Ocean basin continuously. At the same time, NOAA's GOES-15 satellite covers the western U.S. and eastern Pacific Ocean. At NASA's GOES Project, the ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] New study finds external stimulation impacts white matter development in the postnatal brain
Researchers at Children's National continue work to understand myelination
