Microglial replacement for Alzheimer’s disease

Transplants of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) or myeloid cells from healthy donors could help treat Alzheimer’s disease by replacing dysfunctional microglia.

In a genetic mouse model of Alzheimer’s, transplant of HSCs from normal mice, which differentiated into microglia-like cells in the brain, prevented loss of memory function as measured by the novel object test, normalized anxiety behaviors and locomotor activity, and decreased microgliosis and Aβ plaque density compared with no transplant or transplant of HSCs from mice with Alzheimer’s...