Study: Engineered Human Nerve Cells Show Promise

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have shown that human nerve cells can be engineered to form networks of attachments. They reported their findings in the February issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery.

Keying on successful work done on laboratory animals, the Penn team took human neurons and induced them for form nerve tracts or axons between the cells, as happens in the body.

The researchers took human neurons from dorsal root ganglia obtained from surgeries or from organ donor and placed them in special growth media. Using a “stretch growth” method, they slowly moved the neurons further apart over a series of days. The neurons put out axons, that grew at a rate of 1 millimeter per day until they reached a length of 1 centimeter.

The neurons were kept alive for three months, the researchers reported, and maintained their ability to generate electrical signals. The researchers said their study demonstrated the first successful engineered human nerve structures. They said the results showed the viability of harvested human neurons for allografts and autografts in future treatments for diseases affecting the nervous system in humans.


Source: Journal of Neurosurgery, Feb. 2008