New Hope For Spinal Injury Patients?

Rehabilitation could become a realistic outcome for thousands of patients with spinal cord injuries, according to a report published in Science (volume 273, page 510). There is no existing treatment that offers a complete regeneration of spinal cord function in humans.

However, this study, conducted by Henrich Cheng et al of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, discovered that spinal lesions can now be regenerated in rats whose spinal cords have been completely severed, and that their paralysis can to some extent be reversed as a result of this pioneering work.

Once damage has been done to the spine, the nerve cells in the spine are unable to regrow as they are prevented from developing along the axon by chemicals such as neurite inhibitory factor, which is produced by the white matter in the spinal cord. As the nerves in this part of the body are part of the central nervous system, the innervation and stimulus for muscle movement in the rest of the body disappears, leaving the individual paralyzed.