Nerve cells transmit electrical impulses over long distances along fibrous connections called axons, which extend from the cell body where the nucleus resides. Indeed, many neurons in the brainstem possess axons that project as far as the base of the spinal column. Thus damage to these axons can affect the function of parts of the central nervous system that are remote from the actual site of injury.
Lesions caused by traumatic brain damage, stroke and functional decline due to aging processes can disrupt the complex cellular network that constitutes the central nervous system, and lead to chronic pathologies, such as dementia, epilepsy and deleterious metabolic perturbations. "How exactly this happens is completely unknown," says Dr. Ali Ertirk, who heads a research group at the Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research at the LMU Medical Center.
Research Shows New Learning Mechanism for Individual Nerve Cells
The traditional view is that learning is based on the weakening or strengthening of the contacts between the nerve cells inside the brain.
Ertirk and his team previously developed and have now refined a novel imaging technique that allows them to visualize and monitor these structural alterations in neuronal networks. The new findings appear in the journal Nature Methods.
Aggression Causes Production of New Nerve Cells in the Brain
A series of experiments on male mice have experimentally proven that aggression has an influence on the production of new nerve cells in the brain.
Because essentially all cell types - including immune cells and tumor cells - can be specifically labeled with the aid of appropriate fluorescent markers or antibodies, the new method can be employed in a broad range of biomedical settings. "Since it allows individual cells to be localized, the method could be used to detect and characterize metastatic tumors at an earlier stage than is now feasible, or to monitor how stem cells behave in the body following a bone-marrow transplant," says Ertirk. Furthermore, the images obtained can be archived in a database and made available to other researchers, which should help reduce unnecessary duplication of studies. Ertirk and his colleagues are already planning to assemble such an online archive.
Source: Eurekalert
Graphene Shown to Safely Interact With Nerve Cells in the Brain
Researchers have successfully demonstrated how it is possible to interface graphene - a two-dimensional form of carbon - with neurons, or nerve cells.
Lab-Grown Nerve Cells Make Heart Cells PoundSympathetic nerve cells more or less automatically activates and regulates breathing, heart rate, visual focus, digestion and fear response. | Advertisement
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