Important step towards stem cell-based treatment for stroke

Brain infarction, or stroke, is caused by a blood clot blocking a blood vessel in the brain, which leads to interruption of blood flow and shortage of oxygen. Now a research group at Lund University, Sweden, has taken an important step towards a treatment for stroke using stem cells.
The group shows in a new study that induced pluripotent stem cells have developed to mature nerve cells at two months after transplantation into the stroke-injured cerebral cortex of rats. These nerve cells have established contact with other important structures in the brain. The transplantation gave rise to improvement of the animals