Promising new nanotechnology for spinal cord injury
April 3, 2008
A spinal cord injury often leads to permanent paralysis and loss of
sensation below the site of the injury because the damaged nerve
fibers can't regenerate. The nerve fibers or axons have the capacity
to grow again, but don't because they're blocked by scar tissue that
develops around the injury.
Northwestern University researchers have shown that a new nano-
engineered gel inhibits the formation of scar tissue at the injury
site and enables the severed spinal cord fibers to regenerate and
grow. The gel is injected as a liquid into the spinal cord and self -
assembles into a scaffold that supports the new nerve fibers as they
grow up and down the spinal cord, penetrating the site of the injury.
When the gel was injected into mice with a spinal cord injury, after
six weeks the animals had a greatly enhanced ability to use their
hind legs and walk.
The research is published today in the April 2 issue of the Journal
of Neuroscience.
"We are very excited about this," said lead author John Kessler,
M.D., Davee Professor of Stem Cell Biology at Northwestern
University's Feinberg School of Medicine. "We can inject this without
damaging the tissue. It has great potential for treating human
beings."
Kessler stressed caution, however, in interpreting the results. "It's
important to understand that something that works in mice will not
necessarily work in human beings. At this point in time we have no
information about whether this would work in human beings."
"There is no magic bullet or one single thing that solves the spinal
cord injury, but this gives us a brand new technology to be able to
think about treating this disorder," said Kessler, also the chair of
the Davee Department of Neurology at the Feinberg School. "It could
be used in combination with other technologies including stem cells,
drugs or other kinds of interventions.
"We designed our self-assembling nanostructures -- the building
blocks of the gel -- to promote neuron growth," said co-author Samuel
I. Stupp, Board of Trustees Professor of Materials Science and
Engineering, Chemistry, and Medicine and director of Northwestern'
Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine. "To actually see the
regeneration of axons in the spinal cord after injury is a
fascinating outcome."
The nano-engineered gel works in several ways to support the
regeneration of spinal cord nerve fibers. In addition to reducing the
formation of scar tissue, it also instructs the stem cells --which
would normally form scar tissue -- to instead to produce a helpful
new cell that makes myelin. Myelin is a substance that sheaths the
axons of the spinal cord to permit the rapid transmission of nerve
impulses.
The gel's scaffolding also supports the growth of the axons in two
critical directions -- up the spinal cord to the brain (the sensory
axons) and down to the legs (the motor axons.) "Not everybody
realizes you have to grow the fibers up the spinal cord so you can
feel where the floor is. If you can't feel where the floor is with
your feet, you can't walk," Kessler said.
Now Northwestern researchers are working on developing the nano-
engineered gel to be acceptable as a pharmaceutical for the Food &
Drug Administration.
If the gel is approved for humans, a clinical trial could begin in
several years.
"It's a long way from helping a rodent to walk again and helping a
human being walk again," Kessler stressed again. "People should never
lose sight of that. But this is still exciting because it gives us a
new technology for treating spinal cord injury."
http://www.biologyn
ology_for_spinal_
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:
Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/
Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123
The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
____________________________________________
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___
No comments:
Post a Comment