Spinal cord injury eased by stem cells

[RedEarth]

Canadian researchers have used stem cells to repair spinal cord damage in laboratory rats, restoring significant mobility in the animals and bringing the search for a human therapy another step closer.

A team led by Toronto neuroscientist Dr. Michael Fehlings extracted stem cells from adult mice, which were transplanted into rats whose spines had been crushed. The stem cells developed into one type of cell destroyed by the injury — the kind that produces myelin, the insulating layer that cocoons the bundle of nerve fibres that make up the cord.

Injuries that crush or compress the spinal cord destroy its ability to regenerate myelin-forming cells, leading to paralysis. Without the myelin sheath, "nerve fibres don't conduct the signals, they kind of short out and you don't get signals crossing," said Fehlings, medical director of the Krembil Neuroscience Centre at Toronto Western Hospital.

Dr. Oswald Steward, director of the Reeve-Irvine Research Centre for spinal cord injury at the University of California, said the concept of using stem cells for spinal cord cell regeneration has been applied by other scientists. But Fehlings' work "breaks new ground in a couple of ways": by showing that adult stem cells work as well as the more ethically controversial fetal or embryonic stem cells and that the drug minocycline improved their survival, Steward said.

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[trotsky]

1. Conquering paralysis would be one of the all-time great accomplishments.

This holds such promise, and then Chimpy goes and eliminates funding for the Christopher Reeve center.

[aquart]

2. Would it work for MS?