| Scientists Discover Stem Cells Can Repair Spine Tissue |
STEM cells can be used to repair damaged spinal tissue in
rats and help them move again, researchers said yesterday.
The latest research, published in the Journal of
Neuroscience, could offer new hope to paralysed patients.
The team said the technique appeared to work best in the two
weeks after the spinal cord was injured.
It has long been hoped that stem cells could hold the key to
treating severe disability as well as serious illnesses such
as Alzheimer's disease.
In the latest research Dr Michael Fehlings and colleagues
from the University of Toronto took stem cells from the
brains of rodents.
These cells were labelled with a fluorescent marker,
allowing the scientists to trace the cells after they were
transplanted into the rats' crushed spines.
Using a cocktail of growth factors and immune-supressing
drugs, the stem cells transplanted up to weeks after the
initial injury survived in the spine.
The scientists found that more than one-third of the
transplanted cells travelled along the spinal cord and were
incorporated into the damaged tissue.
These cells developed into the type of tissue that was
destroyed at the injured area and were able to produce
myelin - an insulating layer around nerve fibres that
transmits signals from the brain. When the spinal cord is
injured it loses the ability to regenerate myelin-forming
cells, which leads to paralysis.
Dr Fehlings found that where the stem cells restored myelin
in the injured spine, the rats showed some recovery and were
able to walk with more co-ordination.
Dr Oswald Steward, director of the Reeve-Irvine Research
Centre for Spinal Cord Injury at the University of
California, welcomed the study. "These cells can be caused
to differentiate into the types of cells that are useful for
repairing the damaged spinal cord," he said.
By Lyndsay Moss
The Scotsman
29 March 2006
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