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Parkinson's Awareness Week Injecting Survival
18 April 2016

Injecting Survival

Neurons are specialised cells that form the building blocks of our central nervous system. In conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, there’s a loss of working neurons, which can seriously affect brain function and general quality of life. Human stem cells have shown promise for the treatment of brain disease and injury, and now a 3D scaffold technology has been developed that not only promotes the reprogramming of stem cells into neurons but also supports them. The neurons grow within a mesh of tiny polymer fibres (seen here as grey tubes) by attaching to the fibres and branching out (stained red), creating a network of connections that communicate with each other using electrical signals, as in life. These neuron-populated scaffolds were then injected into the brains of mice and the cells were seen to integrate with brain tissue, with better survival rates than neurons that were injected individually.

Marking the start of Parkinson's Awareness Week

Written by Katie Panteli

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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