A team of scientists have said that they believe that cholesterol is important for the development of brain cells, findings they hope will lead to the development of new treatments for Parkinson’s Disease.
In a study published in this month’s edition of Cell Stem Cell, the international research group showed that mice needed an oxidised form of cholesterol, oxysterol, to allow dopamine-producing brain cells to activate a receptor.
Their research, based on stem cells, also showed that when embryonic stem were treated with oxysterol they were able to create more dopamine-producing cells . Stem cells also have a tendancy to grow uncontrollably and the team believe treatment with cholesterol stopped this undesirable growth.
The lead scientist Professor Ernest Arenas from the Centre for Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine in Sweden and colleagues from Australia, the US and the UK concluded that treating embryonic human stem cells with the oxidised cholesterol could improve stem cell treatments for Parkinson’s by “selectively augmenting” the amount of dopamine-producing neurons.
Their ultimate aim is to one day replace the dead cells in the brain of Parkinson’s patients with cells producing dopamine which have been grown in a lab. The lab-created cells could also be used to test potential new treatments for the debilitating disease.