Mouse brain cells rapidly recover after Alzheimer’s plaques are cleared

January 21, 2005 | Source: KurzweilAI

Washington University School of Medicine researchers found that brain cells in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease can recuperate after the disorder’s characteristic brain plaques are removed.

Researchers injected mice with an antibody for a key component of brain plaques, the amyloid beta (Abeta) peptide. In areas of the brain where antibodies cleared plaques, many of the swellings previously observed on nerve cell branches rapidly disappeared. The new results suggest that plaques might not just cause damage but also somehow actively maintain it.

Washington University School of Medicine news release