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A physical scaffold that allows lab-grown brain cells to grow in a three-dimensional manner is giving scientists a whole new way of studying the regeneration of myelin, nerve coatings whose damage is at the heart of multiple sclerosis.
The scaffold is allowing researchers to test large numbers of compounds for their capacity to trigger remyelination. This could lead to an acceleration of research into regenerative drugs for MS
“The aligned Mimetix scaffold fibres from AMSBIO have been an invaluable tool, allowing us to answer fundamental questions regarding how oligodendrocytes form central nervous system (CNS) myelin sheaths,” Marie Bechler, a senior researcher in the Constant laboratory at the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Scotland, said in a press release.
The three-dimensional orientation of cells in the central nervous system determines how cells grow and behave. Earlier methods of growing brain cells in a lab dish have been unable to mirror everything that goes on in a living human.
MRC Centre researchers are using the three-dimensional fiber technology that AMSBIO developed to study oligodendrocyte cells and myelin regeneration. Oligodendrocytes are cells that wrap their appendages around nerve cells to form myelin.
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