Sentences with phrase «reactive glial cells»

In a second test, Chen and his team used a transgenic - mouse model for Alzheimer's disease, and demonstrated that reactive glial cells in the mouse's diseased brain also can be converted into functional neurons.

«More importantly, a retrovirus can infect only dividing cells such as reactive glial cells, but it does not affect neurons, which makes it ideal for therapeutic use with minimal side effect on normal brain functions.»

«Reactive glial cells are like police vehicles, ambulances, and fire trucks immediately rushing in to help — but these rescue vehicles can cause problems if too many of them get stuck at the scene.

They hypothesized that expressing NeuroD1 protein into the reactive glial cells at the injury site might help to generate new neurons — just as it does in the hippocampus.

«There are more reactive glial cells and fewer functional neurons in the injury site,» Chen said, «so we hypothesized that we might be able to convert glial cells in the scar into functional neurons at the site of injury in the brain.

Chen and his team began by studying how reactive glial cells respond to a specific protein, NeuroD1, which is known to be important in the formation of nerve cells in the hippocampus area of adult brains.

The problem with reactive glial cells is that they often stay at the injury site, forming a glial scar and preventing neurons from growing back into the injured areas,» he explained.