Neural Stem Cell Transplantation Project

Curt Freed Curt.Freed@UCHSC.edu &
David Patterson davepatt@eri.uchsc.edu

A mouse model of Down syndrome has been developed which mimics the behavioral features of the human disease. The animal model, the Ts65Dn mouse, is a partial trisomy 16 which has triplicates of many of the same genes seen in human trisomy 21. The mouse also develops cognitive deficits such as slow performance in finding the submerged platform in the Morris water maze, a well-established model of cognitive function in rodents.

As with Down's syndrome and Alzheimer's disease, the deficits in the mouse intensify with age. Because stem cells lining the ventricular system of the person with Down syndrome all share the abnormal trisomy phenotype, the brain does not have a chance to repair itself with normal cells.

The neural stem cell transplantation project is testing transplants of normal (and mutant) mouse neural stem cells in this mutant mouse model using normal littermates as controls. The project team is using stem cells derived from the subventricular zone of weanling mice using epidermal growth factor and basic fibroblast growth factor, a technique which has been done for many years with mouse, rat, and human cells. The working hypothesis is that neural stem cell transplants will improve the behavioral funtion of Ts65Dn mice. Learn more about the Neuroscience Training Program at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.