{"id":583635,"date":"2010-05-28T15:21:56","date_gmt":"2010-05-28T19:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/80beats\/?p=15499"},"modified":"2010-05-28T15:21:56","modified_gmt":"2010-05-28T19:21:56","slug":"obsessive-compulsive-mice-cured-via-bone-marrow-transplant-80beats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/583635","title":{"rendered":"Obsessive-Compulsive Mice Cured via Bone Marrow Transplant | 80beats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mouse\"Obsessive-compulsive mice, which were once pulling\u00a0their hair out from too much grooming, are now sitting pretty. Their cure? A bone marrow transplant.\u00a0In a study<\/a> published today in Cell<\/em>, scientists show an unsuspected\u00a0link\u00a0between\u00a0a psychological disorder\u00a0and the\u00a0immune system.<\/p>\n

Here’s how they did it:<\/p>\n

Step 1 –\u00a0Finding the Problem<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since\u00a0excessive cleaning is a behavior, scientists first thought to look for defects in the mouse brain. They noticed that mice with a mutant version of the gene Hoxb8<\/em> were the ones cleaning themselves bald. Hoxb8 <\/em>is important for creating microglia–nervous system repair cells\u00a0that search for damage in the brain.<\/p>\n

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Although some microglia start out in the brain, others are born in the bone marrow and move in. Overall, adult mice with faulty Hoxb8<\/em> harbored about 15% fewer microglia in the brain than normal. [ScienceNow<\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Since many microglia move from bone marrow to brain, the scientists decided to give the compulsive\u00a0mice, with the\u00a0mutant Hoxb8 <\/em>gene,\u00a0a marrow transplant.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Step 2 — Treatment<\/strong><\/p>\n

They took marrow from\u00a0mice with regular\u00a0Hoxb8 <\/em>and gave it to the compulsive mice mice. Within four weeks, the\u00a0mice\u00a0stopped their obsessive cleaning. Within about three months, they had a full coat of hair.<\/p>\n

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“A lot of people are going to find it amazing,” said Mario Capecchi at the University of Utah, who won the Nobel prize for medicine in 2007 for his work on mouse genetics [and was a co-author of the paper]. “That’s the surprise: bone marrow can correct a behavioral defect.” [Guardian<\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Step 3 — Prognosis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scientists\u00a0aren’t sure why a gene controlling immune cells (the microglia) appears to cure a psychological disorder, but they have some suspicions.<\/p>\n

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“Why couple behavior such as grooming to the host’s immune system?” the researchers ask in [the paper’s] conclusion. “From an evolutionary perspective it may make perfect sense to couple a behavior such as grooming, whose purpose is to reduce pathogen count, with the cellular machinery–the innate and adaptive immune systems–used to eliminate pathogens.” [e! Science News<\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Humans have a\u00a0psychological disorder that mirrors this\u00a0grooming and hair loss compulsion\u00a0in mice–the obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder trichotillomania<\/a> in which people pull out their own hair. But before jumping on this apparent marrow transplant cure, scientists\u00a0would need to find the particular human gene responsible.<\/p>\n

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Capecchi warns that bone marrow transplants are too risky to be commonly used against, for example, OCD. Rather, a fuller understanding of the immune system-mental illness connection should produce new treatments.\u00a0[Scientific American<\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Related content:
\n80beats: Researchers Track the HIV Virus to a Hideout in the Bone Marrow<\/a>
\n80beats: Obsessive Compulsive Sufferers May Find Relief With a \u201cBrain Pacemaker\u201d<\/a>
\nDiscoblog: Where Fat Makes Its Final Stand in the Anorexic Body: In the Bone Marrow<\/a>
\nDiscoblog: Want the Most Accurate OCD Diagnosis? Visit the Zoo<\/a>
\nDISCOVER: Could an Acid Trip Cure Your OCD?<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Image: flickr\/Bascom Hogue<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obsessive-compulsive mice, which were once pulling\u00a0their hair out from too much grooming, are now sitting pretty. Their cure? A bone marrow transplant.\u00a0In a study published today in Cell, scientists show an unsuspected\u00a0link\u00a0between\u00a0a psychological disorder\u00a0and the\u00a0immune system. Here’s how they did it: Step 1 –\u00a0Finding the Problem Since\u00a0excessive cleaning is a behavior, scientists first thought to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-583635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}