Melbourne, Jan 30 (ANI): In a startling medical breakthrough,
scientists in Scotland have created brain tissue from skin samples of
patients who are suffering from mental illnesses such as
schizophrenia and depression.

The latest achievement was made by researchers at
Edinburgh's Centre for Regenerative
Medicine.

"A patient's neurones can tell us a great deal about the
psychological conditions that affect them, but you cannot
stick a needle in someone's brain and take out its cells,"
the Daily Telegraph quoted Professor Charles ffrench-Constant, the
center's director, as telling the Guardian.

"However, we have found a way round that. We can take a skin
sample, make stem cells from it and then direct
these stem cells to grow into brain cells. Essentially, we are
turning a person's skin cells into brain," he stated.

The scientists hope that studying these manufactured brain
cells will reveal clues to the conditions of patients with
mental illnesses - a task that had been challenging in the
past.

"It is very difficult to get primary tissue to study until
after a patient has died," said the Royal Edinburgh Hospital's
Professor Andrew McIntosh, who is collaborating with the
center on the project.

"Even then, that tissue is affected by whatever killed them
and by the impact of the medication they had been taking for
their condition, possibly for several decades. So having
access to living brain cells is a significant development for
the development of drugs for these conditions," McIntosh
added.

If successful, the same methods could be used for other
organs, including the liver and heart. (ANI)

See the rest here:
Human brain cells created from skin samples

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