Jan. 15 - To commemorate the upcoming 2002 Winter Games in Utah and to
demonstrate achievements in medical technologies, bioengineers at the
University of Utah have constructed a set of Olympic Rings made out of
living nerve cells.
The tiny rings measure one-eighth of an inch across and consist of several
individual nerve cells with axons, or fibers, that are one micron wide, about
one-fiftieth the width of a strand of human hair.
Patrick Tresco, associate professor of bioengineering at the University of
Utah, told Discovery News, "After Sep. 11, we thought the world could use
some cheering up, so we thought this was how we could help out in a cool
sort of way."
To make the rings, graduate student Mike Manwaring first created a
transparent mold out of silicone rings and polystyrene. He then coated the
inside of the mold with fibronectin, a protein found in and around body cells.
He placed the mold in a culture dish with growth-promoting liquid and
meningeal fibroblasts, which are cells that form the connective tissue
surrounding the brain and spinal cord. After four days, the fibrolasts grew to
form scaffolding within the mold. At this point adult rat nerve cells were
added. Like vines twisting around a trellis, the nerve cell fibers grew across
the fibroblast scaffolding, making the rings.
In addition to creating a work of art, controlling the shape of cell growthhas
important research and medical applications.
"The most practical reason (for directing shape) would be to control the
curvilinear trajectory of nerve cells for the repair of certain brain nervecell
tracts, and it may have practical applications in engineering other organs or
tissues which are seldom designed in straight lines," said Tresco, who
estimates that stem cell and other cell therapies will be available to the
general public in about a decade.
Bioengeneered cells and stem cells hold promise for treating paralysis due
to spinal cord injury and diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, which
attack nerve cells in the brain.
Commenting on the living rings, Ron Cohen, CEO of Acorda Therapeutics
Inc., one of a handful of companies that has targeted central nervous
system repair as its commercial objective, said, "The Olympics speak to
the highest aspirations of humanity. Just as the Olympic Rings symbolize
athletic achievement, the living rings represent how far we've come in terms
of biomedical technologies, especially in the past 10 years."
The 2002 Winter Olympic Games open on Feb. 8 in Salt Lake City.