Wesleyan Research Suggests Stem Cells Show Promise Treating Epilepsy

MIDDLETOWN

Wesleyan University researchers have reported some encouraging results about the potential for stem cells to treat a particularly debilitating form of epilepsy.

The research is the result of the collaboration of three labs at Wesleyan and focuses on temporal lobe epilepsy, which can be particularly difficult to treat, because many people who suffer from it don't respond to anti-seizure medications.

The condition usually begins with some kind of damage to the part of the brain known as the hippocampus, which then leads to the death of a particular neuron, the inhibitory interneuron.

"We started thinking about collaborating together to see if embryonic stem cells could be redirected to become the kinds of neurons that were dying," said Laura Grabel, professor of biology.

The first phase of the ongoing research resulted in a study published earlier this year in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Grabel and Janice Naegele, a developmental neurobiologist, worked together to develop a method of implanting embryonic stem cells of mice into the brains of mice. The mice were given a chemical to induce temporal lobe epilepsy.

"For the first time we could analyze the functions of these transplanted cells in the mice with the disease," Naegele said. "Are they responsible for preventing these seizures?"

To that end, the project was then turned over to Gloster Aaron, an assistant professor of neuroscience and behavior, who examined slices of the mice's brains under a microscope. The brain samples, kept in solution, can stay alive for eight to 12 hours. The results were promising.

"We found that these cells, derived from embryonic stem cells, could become functioning neurons in the brain," Grabel said. "Not only did they look like inhibitory interneurons, they behaved like them."

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Wesleyan Research Suggests Stem Cells Show Promise Treating Epilepsy