 |
 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hope for multiple sclerosis sufferers in new study ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DETROIT (October 27, 1997 6:52 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- In a development that could help lead to a treatment for multiple sclerosis, laboratory experiments have found that a certain hormone stimulates the growth of the protective sheath around nerves. In degenerative diseases like MS and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, damage around the sheath stops signals from being transmitted between the brain and nerves. An insulin-like growth hormone called IGF-I has been found to regrow these sheaths, University of Michigan scientists reported Monday. Though several growth factors currently are being studied, IGF-I appears to be most effective at inducing the growth of the sheath and preventing neural cell death, according to Michigan researcher Hsin-Lin Cheng. The Michigan scientists, who presented the first results from their experiments with IGF-I at a confererence in New Orleans on Monday, removed nerve cells called dorsal root neurons from newborn rats and grew them in a dish. They found that if they simulated the conditions of diabetes in the dish, then applied the IGF-I, it helped the nerves remain normal, Feldman said. "This may provide a new treatment for a whole group of diseases we couldn't treat before," said Eva Feldman, associate professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Tests with the hormone, which is produced in the liver and is present in blood serum, are under way on about 40 people with neuropathy at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Dr. Stephen Reingold of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in New York, was cautious about the results. "They certainly are jumping the gun by saying that it could help with multiple sclerosis. IGF-I has never been studied with MS," he said. By RANDI GOLDBERG, The Associated Press Copyright 1997 Nando.net Copyright 1997 The Associated Press <http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/health/102797/health20_12442_noframes.html> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- janet paterson - 50/9 - sinemet/selegiline/prozac - [log in to unmask]