Basis of 'leaky' brain blood vessels in Huntington's Disease identified
"Now we know there are internal problems with blood vessels in the brain," said study leader Leslie Thompson, UCI professor of psychiatry & human behavior and neurobiology & behavior. "This discovery can be used for possible future treatments to seal the leaky blood vessels themselves and to evaluate drug delivery to patients with HD." The blood-brain barrier protects the brain from harmful molecules and proteins. It has been established that in Huntington's and other neurodegenerative diseases there are defects in this barrier adding to HD symptoms. What was not known was whether these defects come from the cells that constitute the barrier or are secondary effects from other brain cells. To answer that, Thompson and colleagues from UCI, Columbia University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center reprogrammed cells from HD patients into induced pluripotent stem cells, then differentiated them into brain microvas...