Lab-Grown Brain Cells Hold Promise to Treat Neurological Conditions

The medial ganglionic eminence (MGE) cell is a type of human nerve-cell progenitor that plays a key role in neurodegenerative disorders ranging from Alzheimer's to Parkinson's diseases, epilepsy, and spinal cord diseases.  Arnold R. Kriegstein, from the University of California/ San Francisco (UCSF; California, USA), and colleagues have successfully grown MGEs in the laboratory and transplanted them to further develop in the brains of mice. The study authors submit that: "MGE-derived cortical interneuron deficiencies are implicated in a broad range of neurodevelopmental and degenerative disorders, highlighting the importance of these results for modeling human neural development and disease.”