Research shows blood cells generate neurons in crayfish

Thursday, April 9, 2015 - 08:00 in Biology & Nature

A new study by Barbara Beltz, the Allene Lummis Russell Professor of Neuroscience at Wellesley College, and Irene Söderhäll of Uppsala University, Sweden, published in the August 11 issue of the journal Developmental Cell, demonstrates that the immune system can produce cells with stem cell properties, using crayfish as a model system. These cells can, in turn, create neurons in the adult animal. The flexibility of immune cells in producing neurons in adult animals raises the possibility of the presence of similar types of plasticity in other animals.

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