There Is Still Hope for Those With Spinal Cord Injury

A new discovery will give hope for those who are suffering from spinal cord injuries. They have found a way to implant specialized embryonic stem cells into the affected spinal cord to let it develop new spinal cord tissues.

The researchers from Hokkaido University in Japan along with scientists from other countries may have discovered a way to help those with spinal cord injury. They first implanted specialized embryonic stem cells out on rats with severed spinal cord. Science Daily reported that the stem cells known as neural progenitor cells were extracted from rat embryos and directed to grow as spinal cord tissue.

The grafts promote extensive regeneration of the dissected nerve fibers which helped the rat improve their ability to move their forelimbs. The research team also used grafts of human neural stem cells with injured rats and had the same results, proving that there is a great chance that this method can work in every species.

The most important structure for the motor function in humans is known as the corticospinal tract (CST). It is a band of nerve fibers that moves from the brain through the brain stems and into the spinal cord. Injury to the CST can bring about paralysis. According to MedicalXpress, there have been a lot of researches that have shown the progress of using stem cells to rejuvenate other bands of nerve fibers in the spinal cord. However, injuries only cause include small gaps between the nerve in the bands of the bridging tissue. Lesions to nerve fibers in the CST involve larger gaps and no bands of bridging tissue have shown a huge resistant to regeneration.

The success of the trial is very promising for the treatment of humans with severe injury to the spinal cord. However, there is still a lot of work to be done before it can be interpreted into clinical treatments. More research is needed to decide the best cell type to be used for grafting and for setting up safe grafting methods.