Call It Mighty Mouse: Breakthrough Leaps Alzheimer's Research Hurdle

University of California, Irvine (UCI) researchers have surmounted a major obstacle in understanding and potentially treating Alzheimer's by developing a technique for human brain immune cells to grow and function in mice, reports Medical Xpress . A study in Cell detailed how the team cultured induced pluripotent stem cells from cells donated by adult patients, engineered them to form microglia, and then implanted them in genetically-modified mice. Several months later, the team learned about 80 percent of the microglia in the mice's brains was human. "The functions of our cells are influenced by which genes are turned on or off," said UCI Professor Mathew Blurton-Jones. "Recent research has identified over 40 different genes with links to Alzheimer's and the majority of these are switched on in microglia." The researchers found the microglia mimicked the expected reaction to amyloid plaques by migrating and surrounding the plaques. "The human microglia also showed significant genetic differences from the rodent version in their response to the plaques, demonstrating how important it is to study the human form of these cells," Blurton-Jones noted.