Researchers publish new cell findings
Euan MacDonald Centre researcher Professor Richard Ribchester and his colleagues have very recently published results of a study that may change the way researchers view how cells are organised at the neuromuscular junctions, sites of contact between motor neurones and the muscles they control. Previously it was thought that motor neurones, muscle fibres and a third type of cell called Schwann cells were the only components of neuromuscular junctions.
The new research, published in the Journal of Cell Science (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19001504), now shows the presence of a fourth type of cell that normally co-exists with the others, forming elaborate 'caps' over the neuromuscular junctions. The authors call these capping cells "kranocytes", after the Greek word meaning 'helmet'. More research is needed to work out the functions of kranocytes and how they might be used but since it is now known that neuromuscular junctions degenerate at an early stage in some forms of MND, one idea the researchers have is that kranocytes could be used as vehicles for delivering of neuroprotective growth factors directly to the nerve endings, where they may slow down motor neurone degeneration in the disease.
Posted: 25th November 2008