Stem cells help paralysed rats

[cal04]

STEM cells harvested from the brains of mice can restore some walking ability in laboratory rats with spinal-cord damage, Canadian scientists reported today. The findings are the latest success in rodent experiments to improve movement using a type of stem cell, an immature cell that can turn into different cells and tissues. Researchers hope to eventually test stem-cell therapies in people who are paralysed and help them walk again.

In the new study, scientists took cells known as neural precursor cells, a type of stem cell that has started turning into a central nervous system cell, from mouse brains. The researchers injected the cells into rats that could no longer walk after their spines were crushed, and gave them immune-suppressing drugs to prevent rejection.

The cells migrated to the spinal cord, merged into the injured tissue and developed into cells that produced myelin, the insulating layer around nerve fibres that transmits signals to the brain. Many patients with spinal cord damage have intact nerve fibres at the point of injury but no myelin, causing paralysis. Dr Michael Fehlings, a neurosurgeon at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre at Toronto Western Research Institute, said while the rats did not return to normal, they “recovered significant walking ability".

"They had better coordination of their joints and better ability to support their weight,” Dr Fehlings said. The research was funded in part by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and published in the Journal of Neuroscience. Dr Fehlings said he was hopeful studies of a similar method in people could start in five to 10 years after more animal studies. One question to answer is why injections of stem cells given weeks after an injury appear less effective.

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18641902%255E1702,00.html

[DanCa]

1. If your against this research please at least go inside a lab.

I can arrange a tour if you'd like. It's not that scarey a place. And than you can see for your self the care that goes into keeping the embryo safe. Stem cell research is not the frankenstien scare job that the religious right and the conservative talking points make it out to be.

[medeak]

3. hey Dan...

how was DC?

[DanCa]

4. Good thank you

The senators themselves were out for a break but I met with six reps. And they agreed to show them the papers. We had twice as many as attendees as last year.

[Igel]

6. This seems to involve adult stem cells.

The relevant 'scare phrase' isn't 'embryo murder' but 'interspecies hybrid'.

But I'm not sure that mouse-rat transplants are a bit problem, except to those belonging to the radical right branch of the Murine Assemblies of Christ.

[medeak]

2. what about stem cells exacerbating cancer cells?

Husband has parkinson's and have done so much research..Israel, Korea, China, Sweden.. all treating patients but still there is so much we don't know.

[marcapolo]

5. Question for stem cell experts

This may be a stupid question, but none of the (admittedly limited) articles I've read on stem cells have answered it. If scientists can coax neural stems cells from mice to become spinal cord cells in rats, and they can coax human stem cells from fetuses to become pretty much any type of cell, then why can't we coax stem cells from, say, chimpanzee fetuses to become pretty much any type of human cell? We share 98% of the same DNA. If possible, wouldn't this eliminate a lot of the controversy over using human fetuses? I mean, PETA would be pissed, but you can't please everybody. I'd appreciate any information.