Jefferson Scientists Show Low Lead Levels Can Affect Development of Brain Cells

Neuroscientists at Jefferson Medical College have shown for the first time that low levels of lead have a profound effect on the growth and development of embryonic stem cells.

According to Jay Schneider, Ph.D., professor of neurology, pathology, anatomy and cell biology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, researchers have known for years the potentially devastating effects of even low levels of lead exposure on the cognitive abilities of children. Lead exposure is particularly dangerous in utero, given the “efficient transfer of lead” from a mother to her developing fetus, he notes.

Dr. Schneider asked, What impact does lead have on the birth and development of brain cells, and more specifically, how does lead affect what the brain stem cells become?

Dr. Schneider, who is also director of the Parkinson’s Disease Research Unit at Jefferson, and his co-workers took neural stem cells from different parts of the rat brain and grew them in a dish. Neural stem cells are cells that can become one of three cell types: a neuron, an oligodendrocyte or an astrocyte. The latter two cell types play supportive roles in the brain.

Dr. Schneider and his colleague, Funan Huang, a visiting scientist from China, found that low levels of lead – below the levels of exposure deemed safe for humans by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – can significantly affect the proliferation and development of neural stem cells. Lead significantly inhibited the ability of stem cells to differentiate into either neurons or oligodendrocytes, but increased their ability to become astrocytes, he explains. Dr. Schneider presented these findings Sunday, Nov. 9 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans.

Young women who were lead poisoned as youngsters can, when pregnant, pass lead to their fetuses, Dr. Schneider says. Lead has been stored in their bones, and bone resorption due to increased demands for calcium during pregnancy releases this stored lead back into the circulation. Prenatal exposure to lead is particularly dangerous because toxic effects on the fetus, as well as detrimental effects on the cognitive and motor development of the infant, have been documented.

“We think our results could indicate that early in development, the presence of lead could significantly affect the development and organization of the fetal brain,” Dr. Schneider says.

Next, he and his team plan to examine the effects of lead in an animal model. They plan to compare the effects of lead exposure both before and after birth, particularly the effects on the fate of neural stem cells and the influences of lead on cognitive abilities.

Media Contact

Steven Benowitz TJUH

All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry

Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.

Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Lighting up the future

New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…

Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code

Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….

Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….

Partners & Sponsors