Do brain cells reproduce?

Answer 1

They do in a developing embryo, but not in a fully developed animal/person.

What brain cells CAN do is create connections between each other, creating more neural pathways that aid in recollection. But if you damage your brain enough, it won't recover.

Answer 2

The only cells in any organ that reproduce are the stem cells (undifferentiated). No other cells in the body reproduce after differentiation. The only exception to this rule is the liver which can regenerate itself. So although some cells in the brain can reproduce, overall the brain cells do not reproduce

Answer 3

(m)

Scientists have proved that human neurons are able to regenerate. Dr Fred Gage and colleagues at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, together with doctors at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Sweden, have shown that new neurons do develop after birth.

This flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which suggests that brain cells, unlike all other cell types, do not reproduce.

Dr Gage's team took postmortem brain tissue from five patients who had received an intravenous injection of bromodeoxyuridine as part of their treatment for squamous cell carcinoma. This drug is a thymidine analogue and is therefore taken up into the newly synthesised DNA of dividing cells.

Because of this property, bromodeoxyuridine is sometimes used to check for tumour cell proliferation. The researchers surmised that if neurons could reproduce then any new neurons, if present, would also take up bromodeoxyuridine.

Using immunofluorescence techniques and a laser microscope, which can optically section through individual cells, the team was able to detect the presence of bromodeoxyuridine in all five postmortem specimens.

In addition to showing that new cells were present in the brain, the team also confirmed that these cells were neurons by looking for two other markers which can differentiate between neuronal cells and glial cells (Nature Medicine 1998;4:1313-7).

The brain tissue studied by Dr Gage's team comes from the dentate gyrus, the part of the brain which acts as a relay station between the cortex and the hippocampus and is important in memory and learning. As yet Dr Gage has no idea whether the new cells identified in these sections are fully functional or under what sort of conditions new cells would be introduced. "There may be a replacement phenomenon going on, but we have no clear answer as to whether or not there is cell death over time," he said.

Plasticity and autologous repair may also have to be re-examined in the light of these findings.

In diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and multiple sclerosis, neuronal death obviously occurs, but there may be something about the disease process itself that prevents what might now be considered "normal" neurogenesis from taking place.

Clearly, the factors that stimulate and limit neurogenesis will have to be better understood before any mechanisms for slowing or reversing neuronal loss can hope to offer benefit to people with these neurodegenerative diseases.

Answer 4

Upto 1970s scientists beleived that neurons can not be reproduced but in certain cases like Alzheimers disease the hippocampal region which is the area where the memory is being stored in the revetebratory circuit neurons will be lost due to the. amyloid plaques, neuro fibrillary tangles and ROS(Reactive Oxygen Species) otherwise called free radicals. One study had shown that the supplement of the anti oxidants can stop the neuronal cell loss and it has been proved that the cells can be rejuvenated. so you dont worry your brain wil not die as soon as possible.

Answer 5

A neuron whether in the brain, spinal cord, or peripheral nervous system does not divide. Because of this the brain has special cells called neuroglia or glial cells that support, nourish these neurons because they are all you will ever have. The glial cells in the brain do divide, and it is one of those glial cells called an astrocyte that along with special capillaries form the blood brain barrier.

Answer 6

yes they can, they can regenerate and can divide despite what most people believe, babies heads grow bigger because the brain is growing bigger, but neurons are the hardest and take the longest yet most complex to divide, thats y a human brain takes 80 years to fully mature. Neurons divide soo slowly that it makes people believe that it doesnt at all, which is not true, it just takes time, from a few months to years probably, exact time i have no clue, although neurons are regenerable, some diseases will cause the neurons to be not able to regenerate, therefore causing permanent brain or nerve damage

Answer 7

I don't think so. I mean think about it they say if you take drugs it kills your brain cells, and they say that you brain cells won't grow back. So then my question is if they won't grow back, then why would they reproduce?

Answer 8

The short answer to that is no. Fully differentiated neurons do not undergo mitosis. This is why brain damage is irreversible - the brain cannot fix dead or damaged cells.

Answer 9

brain cells is the onlyt cells in human body that dose not reproduce after it dies

Answer 10

nope there is a fixed number of brain cells.