Journal Club Recap: January 10, 2020

January 10, 2020: At Journal Club, our experts sat down to discuss a paper on the effects of vascular endothelial cells on white matter infarct.

Xu et al 2019 - Transplantation of iPS-derived vascular endothelial cells improves white matter ischemic damage

White matter infarct (dead tissue) results in demyelination and brain dysfunction. It has been previously demonstrated that endothelial cell transplantation improves outcomes of white matter infarct. This research group investigated the effects of transplantation of vascular endothelial cells (cells that line the circulatory system) generated from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) on an animal model of white matter infarct. Their results demonstrated that transplantation of these cells suppressed the inflammatory response and remyelination was promoted. Further research needs to be completed to understand the therapeutic possibilities of this treatment and how it could help patients with areas of damage from MS.