Human Stem Cells Repair Damage Caused by Radiation Therapy for Brain Cancer in Rats

Newsbrief by Jessica Newfield 

Preclinical experiments conducted on rats at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have been able to convert human stem cells into cells that can repair damage in the brain from radiation. These experiments hold important implications for patients who suffer from brain damage due to radiation used to treat brain cancer. During radiation, progenitor cells, or cells that mature to produce the protective myelin sheath around neurons, are killed. Currently, there is no treatment to restore these cells, but researchers have discovered a way to use lab-grown oligodentrocyte progenitor cells to treat rats that had been exposed to brain radiation. If developed further, these discoveries imply that radiation therapy dosage can be increased because the brain would be able to be repaired more effectively.

Cell Press. "Human stem cells repair damage caused by radiation therapy for brain cancer in rats." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 February 2015. .