Many man hours of research has gone into the study of stem cells and regenerative cells with breakthroughs coming with more and more consistency. As we study the cells of plants and eventually more forward to animal cells, as well as examine animal cells in biology lab, I decided to write my article summary over an article involving newer ways of stimulating the brain into stem cell growth with lithium. .
Lithium is used in many standard drugs to treat manic depressions and many mood cycle diseases. Upon further research it has been hypothesized that it can help to treat other brain conditions such as stroke and Alzheimer's disease. This simple salt for reasons still unknown to scientists encourages stem cells to multiply faster suggesting that it could trigger stem cells within the brain to generate new cells to replace those cells damaged by disease. Dr. De-Maw Chuang at the National Institutes of Health has said that many of his colleagues have underestimated the effects of lithium and overlooked its abilities to help heal disease ridden peoples. Chauang's team of scientists used cultured rat brain-stem cells to study the effects of lithium doses. Giving the amount of dose a normal patient would receive, results showed a 30% increase in the production of cells 5 days into the study. Chuang believes that the drug drives cells to release growth-promoting proteins. As lithium is given out to patients with manic depression problems, it works well to restore shrunken brain cells to their normal size. This development is what gives doctors and scientists hope that it may also help in keeping sickly cells alive longer or even curing them. Also found in the research was that lithium helps cultured cells to endure the poisonous effects of certain chemicals, such as glutamate. Glutamate, located in the brain in small doses, help nerve cells to communicate, while larger doses can be deadly, even leading to stoke.