LONDON, Aug 15, 2001 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A new method to capture the elusive stem cells effectively in adult mammal brains would help to develop new treatment for brain diseases.

Adult brain stem cells offer hope for tissue replacement in brain injury and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Unfortunately, the rare stem cells number only 1 for every 300 cells in the adult brain. Researchers have been struggling to pin down the cells' identity and location in brain.

Sieving through mouse brain cells, Perry Bartlett of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia and colleagues gradually weeded out different types of cells.

They made a concentrated population of mouse stem cells at an 80 percent purity -- compared with previously achieved purity of only 5 percent, reported the British science journal Nature to be published on Thursday.

The purified cells were pinned down to particular layers in the brain. Transplanted into developing mouse brains, the stem cells made nerve and support cells, the team showed.

Although they don't naturally regenerate damaged nerves, adult stem cells might one day be kick-started into repairing tissues in conditions such as spinal injury, researchers said.

　　From Healthy.net