Harvard Medical School other research news

Harvard researchers published in Nature the finding that neurons isolated from fetal cerebral cortex and grown in the lab generate an excess of reactive oxygen if taken from fetuses with Down syndrome.

Compared to neurons cultured from normal human fetal cortex, the DS neurons show neurodegenerative changes, including shrinkage and fragmentation, characteristic of apoptosis. Extensive neuronal loss occurred between days 7 and 14 in culture, compared to little neuronal death in normal cortical cultures. ...