The umbilical cord can make more than the belly button: it regenerates your brain. Human umbilical cord blood cells (UCBC) injected into old lab rats caused an improvement in the microenvironment of the hippocampus nucleus of the brain, accompanied by a rejuvenation of neural stem cells. The study carried out at the University of South Florida (USF) was published online at BMC Neuroscience.

"Brain cell neurogenesis decreases dramatically with increasing age, mostly because of a growing impoverishment in the brain's microenvironment. The increase in neurogenesis we saw after injecting UCBCs seemed to be due to a decrease in inflammation," said co-author Dr. Alison Willing, of the USF Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair.
Hampered neurogenesis accompanying the aging process has been connected by researches to a lowered proliferation of stem cells, not an increased cell death.

"In the brain, there are two stem cell pools, one of which resides in the hippocampus. As in other stem cell pools, the stem cells in the brain lose their capacity to generate new cells. A potent stressor of stem cell proliferation is inflammation," said first author Adam Bachstetter, graduate student.

Previously, the same team at USF had decreased neuroinflammation in aged rats by impeding the synthesis of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL1, fact that hampered age-related decrease in neurogenesis and boosted cognitive processes.

"We think that UCBCs may have a similar potential to reduce inflammation and to restore some of the lost capacity of stem/progenitor cells to proliferate and differentiate into neurons," said lead author Dr. Paula C. Bickford of the VA and USF.
The researchers discovered that the number of stem cells rose within 24 hours following the UCBC injections into the aged lab rats and the cell proliferation effect of just one UCBC shot lasted over 15 days.

"Our results raise the possibility that a cell therapy could be an effective approach to improving the microenvironment of the aged brain and restoring some lost capacity," said co-author Dr. Paul R. Sanberg, director of the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair.