March 17, 2016, Rutgers University -- Scientists at Rutgers and Stanford universities have created a new technology that could someday help treat Parkinson's disease and other devastating brain-related conditions that affect millions of people.

The technology - a major innovation - involves converting adult tissue-derived stem cells into human neurons on 3-D "scaffolds," or tiny islands, of fibers, said Prabhas V. Moghe, a distinguished professor in the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers University.

The scaffolds, loaded with healthy, beneficial neurons that can replace diseased cells, were injected into mouse brains.

"If you can transplant cells in a way that mimics how these cells are already configured in the brain, then you're one step closer to getting the brain to communicate with the cells that you're now transplanting," said Moghe, research director for the School of Engineering/Health Sciences Partnerships at Rutgers. "In this work, we've done that by providing cues for neurons to rapidly network in 3-D."

In their multidisciplinary study, published online today in Nature Communications, a dozen scientists from several Rutgers teams and Stanford discuss the 3-D scaffolds and their potentially widespread benefits.

Neurons, or nerve cells, are critical for human health and functioning. Human brains have about 100 billion neurons, which serve as messengers that transmit signals from the body to the brain and vice versa.

Moghe said a 3-D scaffold, developed by the scientists, consists of tiny polymer fibers. Hundreds of neurons attach to the fibers and branch out, sending their signals. Scaffolds are about 100 micrometers wide - roughly the width of a human hair.

"We take a whole bunch of these islands and then we inject them into the brain of the mouse," he said. "These neurons that are transplanted into the brain actually survived quite miraculously well. In fact, they survived so much better than the gold standard in the field."

Indeed, the scaffold technology results in a 100-fold increase in cell survival over other methods, Moghe said.

And that may eventually help people suffering from Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries, and concussions, he said.

These diseases and conditions often arise from the loss of brain cells. Parkinson's disease, for example, is caused by the loss of brain cells that produce dopamine, a key neurotransmitter. Brain cell loss can lead to trembling in the hands, arms, legs, jaw and face; rigidity, or stiffness of the limbs and trunk; slowness of movement; and impaired balance and coordination, according to the National Institutes of Health.

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