Study: Microglia Derived From Human Stem Cells May Lead to a Number of Disease Treatments

During the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) 81st Annual Scientific Meeting, researchers have announced new findings regarding the development of methods to turn human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) into microglia, which could be used for not only research but potentially in treatments for various diseases of the central nervous system.

Microglia are the resident inflammatory cells of the CNS and can modulate the outcomes of a wide range of disorders including trauma, infections, stroke, brain tumors, and various degenerative, inflammatory and psychiatric diseases. However, the effective therapeutic use of microglia demonstrated in various animal CNS disease models currently cannot be translated to patients due to the lack of methods for procuring high-purity patient-specific microglia. Developing a method for obtaining these cells would be highly valuable. Click here to read the full release.