ProLife.ie - We are an education and awareness organisation committed to the promotion of the culture of life.

Swiss scientists have reported that transplantation of human placenta-derived stem cells into the brains of neonatal rats with birth-related brain damage is possible, and that the donor cells can survive and migrate in the recipient’s brain. The study was designed to have the rat’s brain damage mimic brain injury in infants with very low birth weight.
 
One of the major causes of neonatal brain damage is preterm delivery. Despite enormous efforts to prevent it, brain injury accounts for a major part of the clinical problems experienced by survivors of premature birth. The enormity of this problem is indicated by the occurrence of cognitive, behavioural, attention related and/or socialisation deficits in twenty-five to fifty per cent of cases in this group; and major motor deficits in five to ten per cent of cases in this group.
 
Dr Martin Müller, of the University of Bern, one of the study’s authors described how the transplant was effective. “In our study, the donor cells survived, homed and migrated in the recipient brains and neurologic improvement was detected.”
Science Daily. February 10.