(Press-News.org) Mount Sinai researchers have discovered that microglia, the immune cells that reside in the brain, have a unique origin and are formed shortly after conception. It was previously thought that microglia originated at the same time as macrophages, which are other immune cells that are thought to develop at birth. This groundbreaking discovery has the potential to lead to future treatments of degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer's and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. The study is published online October 21 in Science Express.
Microglia are thought to play an important role in the development of many brain diseases, and that defective microglia could lead to the release of inflammatory molecules, which could participate in the development of degenerative brain diseases.
"This really is a startling discovery," said Miriam Merad, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Gene and Cell Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Principal Investigator of the study. "We've shown that the precursor cells develop into microglia only during a short period after conception. Now that we know that microglia originate in early embryos, theoretically we should be able to generate microglia from embryonic stem cells to treat brain diseases caused by defective microglia. This is a very good example of why scientists need to be able to conduct research with embryonic stem cells."
For the first part of the study, researchers transplanted blood cell precursors, which are precursors for all macrophages, from one newborn mouse to another. The transplanted cells could not be differentiated in the recipient animal. These results suggest that microglia originated prior to birth during embryonic life.
Next, researchers used a mouse model that expresses fluorescent biosensors in blood precursors to determine when, during embryonic age, precursors develop into microglia. Once activated the fluorescence does not go away and all cells that develop from the fluorescent precursors should remain fluorescent. The researchers activated the fluorescence as early as seven days after
conception. When they examined adult mice they found fluorescent microglia but no fluorescent macrophages. These results established that microglia are unique in that they originate from precursors that arise around seven days after conception.
"Moving forward we need to further study the normal development of precursor blood cells into microglia, which should help identify the role of microglia in various brain diseases and ultimately lead to advances in treatments," said Dr. Merad.
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About The Mount Sinai Medical Center
The Mount Sinai Medical Center encompasses both The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Established in 1968, Mount Sinai School of Medicine is one of few medical schools embedded in a hospital in the United States. It has more than 3,400 faculty in 32 departments and 15 institutes, and ranks among the top 20 medical schools both in National Institute of Health funding and by U.S. News & World Report. The school received the 2009 Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Service from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
The Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is a 1,171-bed tertiary- and quaternary-care teaching facility and one of the nation's oldest, largest and most-respected voluntary hospitals. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks The Mount Sinai Hospital among the nation's best hospitals based on reputation, patient safety, and other patient-care factors. Nearly 60,000 people were treated at Mount Sinai as inpatients last year, and approximately 530,000 outpatient visits took place.
For more information, visit www.mountsinai.org. Follow us on Twitter @mountsinainyc.
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Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells survive and thrive not just by their own innate wiles, but by also acquiring aid and support from host cells in their surrounding environment. In a paper published online this week in The Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, an international team of researchers led by cancer specialists at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center identify a particular relationship that can promote notably aggressive leukemias and lymphomas.
"The microenvironment is the term used to describe ...
The following are highlights of new cancer research being released at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's (ASTRO) 52nd Annual Meeting to be held October 31 through November 4, 2010, in San Diego.
For full copies of the abstracts and press releases, contact Nicole Napoli at nicolen@astro.org or Beth Bukata at bethb@astro.org. Studies are embargoed until October 25, 2010, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time.
Adding radiation to hormone therapy for prostate cancer treatment will increase survival chances
Prostate cancer patients who are treated with a combination of hormone ...
HOUSTON, Oct. 22, 2010 – Researchers can spend entire careers producing outstanding work but still not see their efforts featured in the pages of Science, one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals. That won't be the case, though, for two junior faculty members in engineering at the University of Houston (UH).
Jacinta Conrad and Jeff Rimer, both assistant professors in Cullen College of Engineering's department of chemical and biomolecular engineering, had papers featured in consecutive issues of Science this month.
"Jacinta and Jeff are both extremely ...
What's the mechanism that makes a political video go viral? What causes a video clip to spread from a few people to millions, sometimes in a matter of hours? Is it a top-down process led by elite gatekeepers or bottoms up, driven by people at the grass roots? And how do blogs affect the life cycle of a viral video?
Common wisdom might suggest that a posse of political blogs triggers virality, but research from the University of Washington indicates it often springs from just two elite blogs followed by top general interest outlets that aren't considered political.
A ...
A new meta-analysis study, "The Neuroimaging of Love," conducted by Syracuse University Professor Stephanie Ortigue, reveals that falling in love can elicit not only the same euphoric feeling as using cocaine, but also affects intellectual areas of the brain. Researchers also found falling in love only takes about a fifth of a second.
Ortigue is an assistant professor of psychology and an adjunct assistant professor of neurology, both in The College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University.
Results from Ortigue's team revealed when a person falls in love, 12 areas ...
Typhoon Megi has run into winds that are weakening the storm, but it is forecast to make landfall in southeastern China late at night (EDT) on Oct. 22 (11 a.m. local time Hong Kong, Oct. 23) as a Category One Typhoon. NASA satellites have been monitoring the storm's rainfall, changing cloud cover, and changing eye as it weakens.
The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite traveled directly above Megi on October 21 at 1401 UTC (10:01 a.m. EDT) when wind speeds were estimated to be about 100 knots (~115 mph). Megi caused at least 27 deaths in the Philippines ...
Tropical Storm 04B grew quickly into powerful Cyclone Giri and was making landfall in Burma today as a powerful Category Four Cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson scale. NASA's TRMM satellite noticed that the storm contained some heavy rainfall in addition to the powerful winds.
Giri is the second tropical cyclone of 2010 to form in the Bay of Bengal and was seen by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. Cyclone Giri was seen clearly by the TRMM satellite twice on Oct. 21. The first good view was at 1534 UTC (11:34 a.m. EDT) when TRMM data showed a very well ...
The GOES-13 satellite is watching Tropical Storm Richard work its way through the western Caribbean, and residents of eastern Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula are bracing for its impacts as it is forecast to strengthen to hurricane status this weekend. Richard is going to be a big rainmaker for those countries.
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite called GOES-13 captured a visible image of Tropical Storm Richard at 1732 UTC (1:32 p.m. EDT) on Oct. 22. GOES satellites are managed by NOAA. NASA's GOES Project at NASA's Goddard ...
2010-10-22 -- Global Intelligence Alliance (GIA), a global strategic market intelligence and advisory group, has announced an Emerging Markets Monitoring Service bundle that specializes in providing local intelligence on Brazil, Russia, India and China, as well as other international growth markets such as Chile, Mexico, The United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and more.
Through its 13 local offices and native-speaking consultants in 100 markets, GIA's Emerging Markets Monitoring Service will assist clients with:
• Market entry intelligence; supporting planning to set ...
Recognizing the myriad environmental problems facing humanity today, Hotelwithheart.com sealed a partnership with WWF-Philippines last January. The Spero-owned hotel booking site hopes to improve lives by helping WWF instruct communities to adapt to climate change, secure food and water sources, conserve local ecosystems, reduce the ecological impacts of new communities and corporations and promote renewable sources of clean energy.
The donation came from Hotelwithheart.com's commission from hotels, at no extra cost to guests. It was made possible by travellers who booked ...
