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| One more reason to start running! |
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| Mohja |
| 05/20/02 at 16:37:06 |
| Study Reveals How Brain Cells Grow ; Physical Activity Enhances Capacity (Record - Bergen County) New studies of brain cells, growth, and the impact of environment suggest it's possible to enhance the brain's capacity meaning the number of nerve cells in the brain by simple activities such as running, scientists report. Such results seen in rodents suggest that progress is being made toward overcoming disastrous brain disorders, including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, and perhaps even strokes. Finding ways to coax new brain cells to replace those that have died is a major goal in modern brain research. The remaining hurdles include getting the new cells to "take," getting them to survive, and inducing them to make the right connections among all the other cells in the adult brain. Also, as in Parkinson's disease, researchers must induce the implanted cells to make and release a biochemical dopamine in the right amounts, in the right places, and at the right times. Thus, much more work is yet to be done. Two main approaches are being pursued. One is to grow new neurons new nerve cells in laboratory dishes and then implant them surgically, hoping they wire themselves correctly to repair damaged parts of the brain. The other is to induce immature cells that already exist in the brain to grow, mature, and then migrate to places where they're needed. Encouraging signs of progress are being seen on both fronts. In a study discussed recently at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, neurobiologist Fred Gage said that immature cells have been identified in the brain, and experiments have shown they can be induced to grow, mature, and function. His own findings suggest, Gage said, that physical activity can enhance the number of neurons that the brain needs to function. Gage does his research at the Salk Institute in the San Diego community of La Jolla. He explained that scientists had already found that the brain structure important for memory called the dentate gyrus has the ability to make immature cells divide to produce new neurons. Neurons are also able to grow in the olfactory bulb, the brain's odor- sensing region. And the new evidence shows that the growth of new cells can occur if the animals are exposed to an enriched environment. Putting mice into an environment that is rich with good experiences "has a dramatic effect on their brains," Gage said. In mice that were allowed to run as much as they wanted, "there was nearly a doubling of cell division," compared to the control mice. So"the amount of running correlates very nicely with the number of new neurons" that are produced. This work, he added, has been confirmed in other research laboratories. At first, it was not clear exactly what kinds of "enrichment" are needed to stimulate new neuronal growth. Possible changes in the animals environment included extra social interactions with other mice, additional learning opportunities, more physical activity or simply living in larger cages. "We attempted to separate components" of an enriched environment"by assigning adult mice various conditions: water-maze learning, voluntary wheel running, enriched housing," and other conditions, he explained. The test animals and the matched control animals also were injected with a chemical marker, BrdU, which can be traced to show whether the growth of new nerve cells has occurred in their brains. At the end of the tests, measurements of BrdU showed clearly that new neurons had grown, probably in response to enriched conditions, especially running. In the mice that ran, the BrdU tests showed that new cells had in fact been born, that they were surviving, and they far outnumbered what was seen in mice that hadn't been running. The number of new brain cells born was much lower in mice that experienced other "enrichments" such as swimming, social interactions, and bigger living space. The surprise comes from overturning long-established dogma. In the past few years, brain scientists have spawned a revolution with the discovery that some cells in the mature brain can divide and replace cells that have died. This is exactly contrary to the beliefs of generations of neuroscientists that once the central nervous system has been built, it never grows again. According to neuroscientist Jeffrey Macklis at Harvard Medical School, hints of this revolution first arose 30 years ago when "data suggested there might be neuronal growth" in areas involved with memory. |
| Re: One more reason to start running! |
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| mwishka |
| 05/26/02 at 09:52:09 |
| science police here. (the work in this article actually relates to research in my lab - we study protein folding and misfolding. alzheimer's is perhaps the most publicly known disease state involving misfolded proteins depositing themselves where they don't belong. we don't do biological studies, though. the only lives we interfere with are the E. coli slave labor we use to produce our proteins - you can't buy the proteins we study. we trick the E. coli into making our protein in preference over their own metabolic proteins, then we slaughter them by the billions and take it for ourselves. < i try not to forget that this is part of my work, no matter how inconsequential it seems in the world.) a few words of caution on the results of this study: first, when you read of studies done with mice, know that they are further from being applicable to humans than are studies done with rats. there is a much greater degree of difference between humans and mice metabolically and physiologically than between humans and rats. generally speaking, mouse studies are based on cost-effectiveness: shorter gestation (i.e., more test subjects produced at a higher rate), lower cost for the strains (because they are less valuable to human research), smaller habitation areas, etc., etc. there are some areas in which mouse studies are critical, essential, but mouse studies which appear to provide data applicable to humans must usually be verified in rat studies. that's why there is a term "lab rat" but not "lab mouse", though most people think "mouse" is some sort of generic rodent. second: you have to re-interpret these findings in terms kf a mouse's personal life. what role does running play in their life? (i'll explain in a moment why this is significant to this particular study.) do they run in their wheel in these captive conditions with the intent to exercise? doubt it. think about a mouse in real life, in a natural environment. mice wander a lot over the course of a day - they get a lot of "exercise". unlike humans, they are in motion most of their waking hours. but why do they wander? in the wild, they'd be gathering information - where is a good source of food, who has been by this way lately, have any predators been around? they gather information they need at the moment as well as gather information for the future to assist in their daily planning. and they have to do a lot of work to gather their food. and then there are the music lessons to get the mouslings to, the relatives to visit, the family trip to lounge about in luxury over by the new grass seed crop on the other side of the meadow..... their metabolism is high-speed, suited to their need to constantly be moving about. in this study, they isolated a few activities as potentially "enriching" and separated the mice into living quarters which afforded them only one of these activities. Putting mice into an environment that is rich with good experiences "has a dramatic effect on their brains," Gage said. In mice that were allowed to run as much as they wanted, "there was nearly a doubling of cell division," compared to the control mice. So"the amount of running correlates very nicely with the number of new neurons" that are produced. so far so good. then this: "We attempted to separate components of an "enriched environment" by assigning adult mice various conditions: water-maze learning, voluntary wheel running, enriched housing," and other conditions, he explained. class, who can tell me what a water-maze is? "that's where you're put into a container of water and have to swim through a maze to save yourself or you drown." good. now, class, is a water-maze experience a "good experience" if you are a mouse? "NOOOOOOOOOO. it's very scary and stressful." class would any of you like to have a water-maze as a required part of your daily experience? "NOOOOOOOOO. it's very scary and stressful." very good class. hmmmm. enriched experience, eh? The number of new brain cells born was much lower in mice that experienced other "enrichments" such as swimming, social interactions, and bigger living space. darn straight on that "swimming". [class, do mice usually swim for pleasure in their daily lives? NOOOOOOOO. they swim to reach food they need or to get away from predators.] i'm afraid to find out what these other enrichments consist of. is "more social interaction" crowded living quarters where as "bigger living space" means isolation and less social interaction? ya gotta be really careful with these biological researchers. one of the reasons i chose chemistry over biology - biologists tend to have a very dissassociated view of living organisms other than humans. which is exactly the reason animals studied in labs have their lives and well-being constantly endangered. anyway, i've made my main points here and have spent enough time writing this (and i admit that i REALLY need my second coffee now. madina or coffee? hmm....which will i give my time to? yeah, eleanor - filtered. drip coffee is worth drinking and savoring. automatic pot coffee - bleccchhh. no flavor.) the last thing: yes, studies have shown recently numbers of types of cells that generate new growth that were (sillily) thought not to. to have overlooked this human characterisitic is called inobservant and jumping to conclusions, in my opinion. you think salamanders can regenerate cells and humans can't? that would not make sense to me. alzheimer's researchers know, and studies are finally confirming, that regular BRAIN exercise is what generates new neuronal growth and seems to not only stave off the progression of alzheimer's, but seems to be able to reverse the effects to some degree. to what degree hasn't been determined. what i will tell you is that the misfolded proteins take on what is called an irreversibly misfolded fibrillar form, but this form IS reversible in some proteins, and i suspect perhaps in all proteins given just the right conditions and sufficient time. maybe when i get around to providing marcie with some structures and asim with a little mechanistic detail (i don't know when that will be) i'll give a little protein folding lesson, and maybe even reveal some of the details of my research...... um, don't watch too closely for that to appear here. sorry..... hee heee anyone want me to try to copy in stereo-view three-dimensional simulations of space-filled protein molecules? question fromadmins: what ARE you doing in here mwishka? did you come to find out about islam, or to try to distract us all with the material world?! ) mwishka (will be back to police the sleep study. i was absolutely intrigued to see it here, since i had just been bugging someone a week or so ago to address the question of sleep interference in following a regular prayer routine, i.e., exactly that question: are devout muslims constantly sleep-deprived. if you are, i don't want to share the road with you..... ;) ) |
| Re: One more reason to start running! |
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| mwishka |
| 05/26/02 at 12:38:51 |
| oh, sister mohja, i hope you didn't feel i was criticising your choice of article. :( not at all! i was just doing what i do -- go about the world re-interpreting everything for everyone, reading between the lines, telling stories of mouse lives ;) , and......hmmmm....wasn't thinking of this! representing honorable scientists everywhere! 8) science IS cool, when it's not misused.... in fact, it's REALLY REALLY cool. it's REALLY REALLY REALLY ....... hee heee mwishka |
| 06/02/02 at 11:21:02 |
| mwishka |
| Re: One more reason to start running! |
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| Mohja |
| 05/27/02 at 03:07:25 |
| [quote] i hope you didn't feel i was criticising your choice of article. [/quote] not at all!! it's just that i've been *very* busy these last couple of days, i didn't see your reply till late this afternoon and then i was in a hurry. you're right though about being careful in how we interpret these studies. i'm afraid i was being intentionally gullible in a feeble attempt to trick myself to start excercising. so much for my incentive now ::) |
| Re: One more reason to start running! |
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| mwishka |
| 05/27/02 at 19:41:12 |
| OH NO sis mohja!! :( if what i wrote analyzing the research methods of that article will interfere with you making a change for the better in your life, not one word of it was worth it!! now i wish i hadn't......... :'( :'( you're not gullible! these researchers were completely manipulative in the reporting of their results. (i kind of hope it's not that they're actually unaware of the flaws in the study......) ok, i'm going to try to fix this...... first, though this particular study came to some oversimplified and some wrong conclusions, it DID NOT negate the benefit to humans of running. in fact, the one thing i realized that i didn't include in that article is about the effect thoughts have on particular benefits to the body while exercising. in the context of the mice running in their wheels, what accounts for the increased growth of neurons (did you notice i forgot to go back and address this??)? in the case of a mouse running in a wheel in captivity, i think that we as humans have to release our arrogance over creative thinking and problem solving and allow for the possibility that, with no natural problem-solving situations to contend with, those mice might very well be mentally problem-solving as they run. (pondering fermat's last theorem, for all we know!!) i think if you ask people who run for exercise they would also tell you they carry out a lot of problem-solving while they run. a little side note i can't keep myself from throwing in here: there have been studies of persons IMAGINING they were exercising (oh mohja, you're going to love this! hee hee) which found benefit to the muscles involved in the imaginary movements. ok, now, before someone thinks everyone can now just sit home and study all day and be fit as a fiddle, the test subjects were all highly experienced meditators or yoga practitioners or martial arts practitioners. in other words, people with very disciplined minds. (unlike most of us...) the processes involved in the development of the symptoms of alzheimer's are time controlled - that is, there are mechanisms and events which determine the progression of the disease, but the factors which determine the RATE of the progression OR the rate of deposition of the misfolded proteins into stringy tangles that form solid plaques (like "plates") are unknown. the way in which the damage to the neurons and the resultant memory loss occurs has several hypotheses, one of those areas of disagreement and dispute which will eventually end in a complete picture of the whole process involving (IN MY OPINION..... ;) ) all of the elements currently being studied. (i am sorry to be so vague about the hypotheses, i don't want to take the time for them...) so, sis mohja, what this all comes down to for you (after way too many words, once again... :( ) alzheimer's, like most other serious illnesses we will have to contend with in our lives, involves dysfunctions in normal metabolic processes. exercise is a component of good health, whether it's a contrived form (what we tend to call "exercise") or just a regular part of our lives (physical labor, walking, hiking distances for pleasure, etc.), and one of the things is does is assist in the circulation through our body of oxygen, nutrients, building components, etc. so maybe you won't get the absolutely direct effect of alzheimer's prevention that the article promised you, but you will get overall stupendous benefits by taking care of yourself and staying active. ( < and sorry that sounds like a vague marketing phrase. hmmm...it's a true statement, i guess it's just overused....) mwishka |
| 06/02/02 at 11:26:26 |
| mwishka |
| Re: One more reason to start running! |
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| The_Naeem |
| 05/28/02 at 11:30:55 |
| [quote author=mwishka link=board=bebzi;num=1021927026;start=0#1 date=05/26/02 at 09:52:09]second: you have to re-interpret these findings in terms of a mouse's personal life. [/quote] I didn't know a mouse could have a "personal life" :-[ |
| Re: One more reason to start running! |
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| Mohja |
| 05/29/02 at 13:55:21 |
| [quote] there have been studies of persons IMAGINING they were exercising (oh mohja, you're going to love this! hee hee) which found benefit to the muscles involved in the imaginary movements. [/quote] umm mwishka, did we meet before and i forgot about it? you seem to know me so well ;) don't worry about my excercising(lack of it), insh'Allah one of these days i'll master enough will to kick myself in the...err do something about my sedentary life that is :) |
| 05/29/02 at 17:57:53 |
| Mohja |
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