Neural stem cells improve neuronal survival in cultured postmortem brain tissue from aged and Alzheimer patients

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases are progressive and incurable and are becoming ever more prevalent. To study whether neural stem cell can reactivate or rescue functions of impaired neurons in the human aging and neurodegenerating brain, we co-cultured postmortem slices from Alzheimer patients and control participants with rat embryonic day 14 (E14) neural stem cells. Viability staining based on the exclusion of ethidium bromide by intact plasma membranes showed that there were strikingly more viable cells and fewer dead cells in slices co-cultured with neural stem cells than in untreated slices. The presence of Alzheimer pathology in the brain slices did not influence this effect, although the slices from Alzheimer patients, in general, contained fewer viable cells. Co-culturing with rat E14 fibroblasts did not improve the viability of neurons in the human brain slices. Since the human slices and neural stem cells were separated by a membrane during co-culturing our data show for the first time that neural stem cells release diffusible factors that may improve the survival of aged and degenerating neurons in human brains.

Injury Response of Resected Human Brain Tissue In Vitro

“…However, tissue slice cultures of the adult human brain provide a novel alternative to study the properties of human central nervous system (CNS) cells in relation to ageing, disease or injury. In previous research, we have shown that cells in post‐mortem human brain tissue slices can stay alive for long periods in vitro and respond to experimental manipulation . In epilepsy surgery, “normal” (ie, not directly adjacent to the epileptic focus and no recording of spontaneous epileptic activity by the electrode arrays placed on the cortical surface prior to resection) brain tissue frequently needs to be removed in order to reach the epileptic focus.…”

FSD-C10, a Fasudil derivative, promotes neuroregeneration through indirect and direct mechanisms

“…Cells that had a red nucleus with green cytoplasm, and were consequently in an intermediate state between viable and dead, were denoted as “leaky cells”. The sum number of viable cells, dead cells and leaky cells were defined as “total cells”555657. Results were expressed as number of different type of cell per view field.…”

Pituitary Stem Cells

“…43 As an alternative to live human pituitary specimens, the study of human postmortem stem cells might represent a good option for future studies. [68][69][70][71] However, anatomic and functional alterations in the postmortem state may not adequately represent the in vivo conditions and might therefore provide inaccurate results. Adult pituitary tissue obtained after hypo physectomy might also be a source for tissue specimens, but the presence of pathological alterations in the gland might change the organization and the proliferative-differentiation capacity of the potential stem cells 5,72,73 and introduce inaccuracy into the results.…”