Washington, Oct 17: New research conducted by the Stanford University School of Medicine reveals that bone marrow cells can fuse with specialized brain cells and repair and bolster brain cell activity This finding helps resolve an ongoing debate of whether adult stem cells transform from bone marrow cells into other cell types like the brain, muscle or liver cells or do they fuse with those cells to form a single entity with two nuclei?


The research carried out by Helen Blau, the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Professor of Pharmacology, was published in the Oct. 16 online issue of 'Nature Cell Biology'. The findings showed that the bone marrow cells in mice fuse with existing Purkinje cells and activate genes normally made in Purkinje cell nuclei.



""I think that fusion might be a really important biological mechanism Fusion might be a sophisticated mechanism for rescuing complex damaged cells," Blau said.


Blau and senior scientist James Weimann transplanted mice with bone marrow cells that had been genetically altered to produce a fluorescent green protein. Over the course of the next 18 months (75 percent of a mouse's life span), they looked for signs of fluorescent green cells in the animals' brains.
Bureau Report