This begs the question .. again ..

Would / DOES ? .. blood donation / bloodletting / blood loss stimulate
the producton of
granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (GCSF) in order to replenish the
loss red blood cells and therefore at the same time raise the
possibility of ALSO ramping up repair cells .. ?

Blood stem cell growth factor reverses memory decline in mice
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/uosf-bsc070109.php

July 1st, 2009
Microglia (in green) attack the beta amyloid (red) deposited in the
brain of a GCSF-treated Alzheimer's mouse. Credit: Photo courtesy of
University of South Florida

A human growth factor that stimulates blood stem cells to proliferate
in the bone marrow reverses memory impairment in mice genetically
altered to develop Alzheimer's disease, researchers at the University
of South Florida and James A. Haley Hospital found. The granulocyte-
colony stimulating factor (GCSF) significantly reduced levels of the
brain-clogging protein beta amyloid deposited in excess in the brains
of the Alzheimer's mice, increased the production of new neurons and
promoted nerve cell connections.

The findings are reported online in Neuroscience and are scheduled to
appear in the journal's print edition in August.

GCSF is a blood stem cell growth factor or hormone routinely
administered to cancer patients whose blood stem cells and white blood
cells have been depleted following chemotherapy or radiation. GCSF
stimulates the bone marrow to produce more white blood cells needed to
fight infection. It is also used to boost the numbers of stem cells
circulating in the blood of donors before the cells are harvested for
bone marrow transplants. Advanced clinical trials are now
investigating the effectiveness of GCSF to treat stroke, and the
compound was safe and well tolerated in early clinical studies of
ischemic stroke patients.

"GCSF has been used and studied clinically for a long time, but we're
the first group to apply it to Alzheimer's disease," said USF
neuroscientist Juan Sanchez-Ramos, MD, PhD, the study's lead author.
"This growth factor could potentially provide a powerful new therapy
for Alzheimer's disease - one that may actually reverse disease, not
just alleviate symptoms like currently available drugs."

The researchers showed that injections under the skin of filgrastim
(Neupogen®) -- one of three commercially available GCSF compounds --
mobilized blood stem cells in the bone marrow and neural stem cells
within the brain and both of these actions led to improved memory and
learning behavior in the Alzheimer's mice. "The beauty in this less
invasive approach is that it obviates the need for neurosurgery to
transplant stem cells into the brain," Dr. Sanchez-Ramos said.

Based on the promising findings in mice, the Alzheimer's Drug
Discovery Foundation is funding a pilot clinical trial at USF's Byrd
Alzheimer's Center. The randomized, controlled trial, led by Dr.
Sanchez-Ramos and Dr. Ashok Raj, will test the safety and
effectiveness of filgrastim in 12 patients with mild to moderate
Alzheimer's disease

The researchers worked with 52 elderly mice, equivalent to the human
ages of 60 to 80 years. About half (24) were mice genetically altered
to develop symptoms mimicking Alzheimer's disease by the time they
reach 5-months old. The others (28 normal, or non-Alzheimer's, mice)
were not. The researchers confirmed through a series of tests that the
Alzheimer's mice were memory impaired before beginning the
experiments.

Some mice were treated for three weeks with injections of the GCSF
compound filgrastim. At the end of study, the Alzheimer's mice treated
with GCSF demonstrated clearly improved memory, performing as well on
behavioral tests as their non-Alzheimer's counterparts. The
Alzheimer's mice administered saline injections instead of GCSF
continued to perform poorly. GCSF treatment did not boost the already
excellent memory performance demonstrated by the non-Alzheimer's mice
tested before the study began.

Further experiments showed that the size and extent of beta amyloid
deposited in the brains of the Alzheimer's mice was significantly less
in those treated with GCSF. Depending on their ages, mice treated with
GCSF had a 36 to 42-percent reduction in beta amyloid, the protein
considered a major culprit in the development of Alzheimer's disease.

GCSF reduced the burden of beta amyloid deposited in the brains of the
Alzheimer's mice by several means, the researchers found. One was by
recruiting reinforcements to clear beta amyloid accumulating
abnormally in the brain. The growth factor prodded bone-marrow derived
microglia outside the brain to join forces with the brain's already-
activated microglia in eliminating the Alzheimer's protein from the
brain. Microglia are brain cells that act as the central nervous
system's main form of immune defense. Like molecular "Pac-men," they
rush to the defense of damaged or inflamed areas to gobble up toxic
substances.

The growth factor also appeared to increase the production of new
neurons in the area of the brain (hippocampus) associated with memory
decline in Alzheimer's disease and to form new neural connections.

"The concept of using GCSF to harness bone marrow-derived cells for
Alzheimer's therapy is exciting and the findings in mice are
promising, but we still need to prove that this works in humans," said
Dr. Raj, a physician researcher at the Byrd Alzheimer's Center at USF
Health.

Source: University of South Florida Health

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Tom

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