Canadian researchers have used a cocktail of stem cells, growth hormones and anti-inflammatory drugs to treat rats with spinal injuries. The team, based at the Toronto Western Research Institute, say that the treatment restored some walking ability and limb control in the animals. The research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, also identifies a critical early window during which the treatment is most likely to be effective. Another new study, carried out at the Institute of Experimental Medicine in Prague, Czech Republic, suggests that injecting a gel-like substance into areas of damaged spine could allow scientists to treat older spinal injuries. Pavla Jendelova presented her team's work on rats at a recent conference in San Francisco.
The Canadian team used nerve stem cells taken from mouse brains to treat rats with crushed spines. The addition of growth hormones and anti-inflammatory drugs seemed to help the transplanted cells survive. Although about two-thirds of them died, around 80 per cent of the remaining cells developed into oligodendrocytes - 'support cells' that make the nerve-cell insulating substance myelin. The scientists found that the treatment worked well if given within two weeks of the injury, but less so when injected eight weeks later - when only five per cent of the cells survived.
The scientists hope that clinical trials of a similar method will be possible within five to ten years, after more animal studies. 'This type of strategy could potentially be relevant to about 50 per cent of individuals with spinal cord injuries who still have enough nerves at the injury site but have lost myelin', said team leader Michael Fehlings. However, he thinks that scarring at the injury site could prevent stem cells from working if treatment is delayed. The Czech scientists have discovered that adding stem cells to spinal implants made of 'hydrogels' could help treat older spinal injuries, by bridging gaps that develop over time. According to Jendelova, hydrogels resemble the soft tissue that surrounds a human spinal cord as it develops in the womb, creating a 'scaffold' to support the cells. The team used blocks of hydrogel containing bone marrow stem cells to treat 28 rats with severed spinal cords. Four weeks later, the scientists analysed the treated areas, and found that the stem cells had built new spinal cord tissue with nerve fibres that grew through the gel matrix. The animals had also recovered a lot of the movement they had lost due to their injuries.
Jendelova hopes that gel-based spinal cord repair treatments will be ready for clinical trials in around five years time, although she cautions that the size difference between rodents and people might cause problems. 'The hydrogels may be fine for a rat's small spinal cord, but we can't say whether they will work as well in a human one, which is more than 10 times thicker', she told Wired News.
Sources and References
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Jell-O Fix for Spinal Cords
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Stem cell cocktail could treat spinal injury
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Stem cells from brains help rats walk, study says
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