Researchers join severed spinal cords
NEW YORK, Dec 01 (Reuters Health) -- Purdue University researchers have
restored nerve impulses in extracted damaged
or severed sections of guinea pig spinal cords. Dr. Richard B. Borgens
presented his team's findings recently at the 18th annual
meeting of the Society for Physical Regulation in Biology and Medicine
in Long Beach, California.
The researchers sliced spinal cord segments from adult guinea pigs into
two segments, then applied a polymer called
polyethylene glycol (PEG) directly on the end lesions for 2 minutes. The
polymer fused the cut portions, which allowed electrical
impulses to be restored between the segments.
The researchers used the analogy of a broken garden hose to explain how
the process works. ``If we cut the hose and just hold
the two ends tightly together, their not going to reconnect or function
as a hose. But if we add this special molecule, PEG, the
'rubber' melts a tiny bit on each side and literally fuses the hose back
together,'' explained Borgens, director of paralysis
research at Purdue in West Lafayette, Indiana, in a release to the
press.
Nerve impulses were restored between the cut segments within 5 to 10
minutes, the researcher said.
Borgens told Reuters Health that ``preliminary findings in live animals
show similar results. This process is a new way of thinking
about the repair to spinal cord or, potentially, other nerve injuries.''
In a similar study presented recently at the 28th Annual Meeting of the
Society for Neuroscience, held in Los Angeles,
researchers reported reconstructing spinal sheaths and restoring nerve
signals in rat spinal cords.
In collaboration with Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Yale University School of
Medicine researchers either partially severed spinal
cords or chemically destroyed the myelin sheath that surrounds portions
of nerve cells. Myelin functions to enhance nerve
conduction.
The rats were injected with genetically engineered pig cells containing
human Schwann cells or ensheathing cells -- cells that
support the formation of the myelin sheaths in humans. The rats also
received immunosuppressive drugs, according to Alexion
Pharmaceuticals President Dr. Leonard Bell.
Bell reported that the chemically destroyed spinal sheaths showed signs
of reconstitution following injection with either of the
two types of transgenic pig cells.
Yale University's Dr. Jeffery D. Kocsis said in an Alexion press release
that ``Alexion's transgenic pig cells were associated with
the highest levels of spinal cord repair and regeneration that we have
yet seen using this transplantation approach.''
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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