UW-Madison scientists enhanced their reputation as leaders in the embryonic stem-cell field Wednesday with the announcement of a study linking stem-cell research with Down syndrome.
The study, published Jan. 26 in the Lancet, a British medical journal, used stem-cell research to provide a prototype of the earliest developmental processes in the human brain of an individual suffering from the condition.
\The main point is that we have a new model of Down syndrome,"" said Clive Svendsen, a UW-Madison professor of anatomy and neurology and co-author of the report.
Svendsen said he, along with lead co-author Sabina Bahn from the University of Cambridge, began the study three years ago in Cambridge. Svendsen and Bahn decided to start working together when she was a postdoctoral researcher ""with good experience in gene analysis,"" and he was ""growing neural stem cells from Down syndrome patients.""
Svendsen is also the director of the stem cell research program at the UW-Madison Waisman Center, a research institute encompassing study of human development, developmental diseases and neurodegenerative diseases.
""One of the things that's important about this particular research funding is that it's a little different than what you normally read about stem-cell research in that it relates directly to development disabilities,"" said Pat Mitchell, a university relations representative for the Waisman Center.
Down syndrome, which affects almost 350,000 people in the United States alone, results from an extra chromosome, chromosome 21, in the cells of most with the condition. Researchers, however, have not been able to pinpoint the precise genetic events that lead to the abnormal brain development of the syndrome.
Human neural cells can be grown indefinitely, all carrying the extra chromosome, Svendsen said. From that point, researchers can explore the mechanisms of neuronal migration and survival from the stem cells directly in a lab.
In the Down syndrome cells in the study, there was a reduction in the percentage of cells that form neurons compared to non-Down syndrome cells.
Scientists can try to prevent the new neurons grown in the lab that carry the extra chromosome from dying early, he added, with implications for future therapies.
Previously, scientists only had mouse cell models to conduct such research. Svendsen described these as very different from those of humans and therefore often not very useful or lethal to the developing mouse.
UW-Madison first received worldwide recognition in 1998 when Assistant Professor James Thomson became the first person to successfully isolate human embryonic stem cells. Since then, the university and its researchers have attracted attention for issues related to the research, including a recently settled lawsuit with Geron, a California-based corporation responsible for the financial funding of Thomson's initial work.
