OROGOLD Cosmetics recently came across a study that was published in the Neuron Journal. This study was conducted by researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis and it showed that skin cells can actually be converted into brain cells and made to function like native cells! This study showed that the human skin cells can be converted into brain cells by exposing them to the right transcription factors and microRNAs. The study is certainly unusual because the cells that were converted were directly converted into brain cells known as medium spiny neurons, without making them return to the stem cell stage, thereby avoiding the risk of creating other cell types altogether. Another thing that made this study unique was that the researchers were successful in transforming the skin cells into a particular type of brain cells, instead of a particular range of cells.

According to the study, the brain cells that were produced from the skin cells managed to survive for almost 6 months after being injected into the brains of a group of mice. The researchers also indicated that these cells were important in helping to control the movement and were the main type of cells that are usually affected when a person suffers from a disease known as Huntington’s Disease.

Huntington’s Disease is a genetic disease that leads to a gradual decline of mental ability and causes a person to make involuntary movements. Patients usually start suffering from this disease around their middle age and they can live on with the symptoms for approximately 20 years. According to Dr. Andrew S. Yoo, an assistant professor at the Washington University School of Medicine, the cells did not only survive in the mouse brains, they also managed to showcase properties which were similar to the properties of native cells. Yoo says that these cells can extend projections into certain regions of the brain. He also mentions that the researchers discovered that the human transplanted cells could connect to the distant targets within the mouse brain.

The researchers also believe that the study shows immense potential when it comes to using a patient’s cell in regenerative medicine because of the fact that adult skin cells were used in the study, and not mouse cells or young human cells. Thereby, therapies should be able to use the cells that are readily available and also avoid the problem of immune rejection altogether.

The cells that were transformed in this study were cultured in an environment that actually mimics the one where brain cells reside. In a previous study conducted by the researchers, they had already managed to prove that exposing skin cells to certain RNA molecules known as miR-124 and miR-9 could transform them into a variety of brain cells.

Although the exact process of the transformation is still being determined, experts believe that the RNA molecules helped to open up the tightly packed DNA inside these skin cells and used them to instruct the cells to transform into brain cells, thereby switching on the genes required for the development and function of such cells.

Researchers are now using skin cells obtained from patients who are suffering from Huntington’s disease and are transforming them into spiny neurons using this approach. The next step of the study involves injecting these cells into mice having Huntington’s disease and researching on how the cells can be used to cure the disease altogether.