Cell Stem Cell 2, 553–565 (2008)

Human glial progenitor cells can differentiate into cells that make the nerve cell insulator myelin, and it now seems they can be used to treat a neurological disorder in mice. The cells come from the white matter of the brains of second-trimester human fetuses.

A team led by Steven Goldman at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York inserted about 300,000 human glial progenitor cells into the brain of each of 26 'shiverer' mice — which cannot make normal myelin — shortly after birth. Four of the treated animals lived for more than a year. Post mortem revealed well-myelinated neurons. All of the control mice died before they reached 21 weeks of age.