U.K. scientists have shown how induced neural stem cells (iNSCs) derived from skin cells can reduce chronic neuroinflammation in the brains of a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS), and could potentially be used to hold back or repair damage to nerve cells and myelin.

The University of Cambridge team, co-led by Stefano Pluchino, Ph.D., in the department of clinical neuroscience, demonstrated that injecting either embryo-derived neural stem cells (NSCs) or iNSCs directly into the animals’ cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) led to reduced CSF levels of succinate, which triggered inflammatory macrophages and microglia to switch back into an anti-inflammatory phenotype.