Scientists at Cedars-Sinai have examined how aging stem cells could lead to finding a cure of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Affecting 12,000 people between the ages 40 to 70, ALS causes paralysis and with no current method of treatment kills its victims within 5 years of diagnosis.  The need to find a cure or just a method of treatment for this crippling disease is on the top of the list for the research team led by Clive Svendsen, PhD, and Ritchie Ho, PhD.

Researching stem cells in the treatment of ALS led to the discovery that immature induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) versions of spinal motor neurons, currently used to model ALS, are more similar to immature neurons than mature neurons. Scientist then showed that ALS effects cells as they age, so using already aged stem cells could lead to a cure to the disease.

"By knowing the gene expression patterns that define adult motor neurons in the spinal cord, we can push the iPSC-derived motor neurons in the right direction in the petri dish," said Svendsen, director of the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute and professor of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.