Modeling Autism in a Lab Dish

[HysteryDiagnosis]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101111121622.htm


Modeling Autism in a Lab Dish: Researchers Create Autistic Neuron Model

ScienceDaily (Nov. 12, 2010) — A collaborative effort between researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of California, San Diego, successfully used human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells derived from patients with Rett syndrome to replicate autism in the lab and study the molecular pathogenesis of the disease.


>>"It is quite amazing that we can recapitulate a psychiatric disease in a Petri Dish," says lead author Fred Gage, Ph.D., a professor in the Salk's Laboratory of Genetics and holder of the Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases. "Being able to study Rett neurons in a dish allows us to identify subtle alterations in the functionality of the neuronal circuitry that we never had access to before."
Marchetto started with skin biopsies taken from four patients carrying four different mutations in the MeCP2 gene and a healthy control. By exposing the skin cells to four reprogramming factors, she turned back the clock, triggering the cells to look and act like embryonic stem cells. Known at this point as induced pluripotent stem cells, the Rett-derived cells were indistinguishable from their normal counterparts.
It was only after she had patiently coaxed the iPS cells to develop into fully functioning neurons -- a process that can take up to several months -- that she was able to discern differences between the two. Neurons carrying the MeCP2 mutations had smaller cell bodies, a reduced number of synapses and dendritic spines, specialized structures that enable cell-cell communication, as well as electrophysical defects, indicating that things start to go wrong early in development.<<

[KT2000]

1. This is pretty incredible

and awe inspiring.