| Mind
& Maze |
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From the Research Front
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| Did
you know there are cells in your body that can grow up to be neurons?
Stem cells are undeveloped or “baby” cells. Typically stem cells
are found in your bone marrow and grow up to be red blood cells.
But, recently scientists have found that these same stem cells can
grow up to be neurons if they are transplanted to the brain. This
is exciting, because it may help doctors to treat people with brain
injuries. |
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| Mind
& Muscle Maze Module |
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Authors:
Lynne
E. Houtz, Ph.D., Mindy Oxenford, Erinn Hoagland, Lisa Eaton,
Andrea Zardetto-Smith, Ph.D.
Developers: David Crotts,
Lisa Eaton, Marcie Frazier, Erinn Hoagland, Mindy Oxenford |
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Prior
to the second World War, Levi-Montalcini was a research associate
working in the laboratory of a famous histologist, Guiseppe
Levi in Turin, Italy. She was investigating the effects of limb
bud removal on the development of spinal ganglia in the chick
embryo. In 1936 Mussolini issued the "Manifesto per la
Difesa della Razza", signed by ten Italian 'scientists';
this was soon followed by the promulgation of laws barring academic
and professional careers to non-Aryan Italian citizens. Levi-Montalcini
and Levi went to Belgium to continue research. While Levi-Montalcini
returned to Turin on the eve of the Nazi invasion of Belgium,
Levi remained but later fled the Nazis and joined Levi-Montalcin
in Turin. Because of the heavy bombing of Turin, in 1943 they
left for Florence, where they remained in hiding (underground)
until the end of the war. During this time, Levi-Montalcini
continued her experiments, often eating the experiment afterwards
for food. In 1946 Levi-Montalcini accepted an invitation to
the United States and joined the laboratory of Viktor Hamburger
in St. Louis. Hamburger had read a paper by Levi-Montalcini
and Levi (though it had been published several years earlier
in 1942), and excited by the seemingly different results from
his own work, invited Levi-Montalcini to work with him so they
could resolve these differences. They published their first
paper in 1949, and it became a landmark in the field. By the
1950s, the beginnings of the neurotrophic theory had been established.
The
neurotrophic theory postulates that neuron survival is dependant
on their successful competition for neurotrophic factors (proteins
secreted by the target organ (or, neighboring cells or from
the neuron itself). Target organs provide limited survival
factors for neurons; when synaptic contact is made between
a developing axon and its target organ (such as a muscle fiber
cell) the ability of the neuron to compete for the survival
factor will determine whether it survives, or undergoes programmed
cell death. As many as 50% of each class of neurons will be
lost through a process of “programmed cell death”,
or apoptosis.
For her work in establishing the neurotrophic theory, Levi-Montalcini
was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in
1987 (sharing it with Stanley Cohen, a research colleague).
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