Doctors hope to use the body's own nerves to bridge the gap in the spinal cord left by paralysing injuries. Marie Filbin, from the City University of New York, took a nerve leaving the spine just above an injury, and reattached it below. New Scientist magazine reports that rats used in the experiment showed some signs of renewed movement. A UK expert said the injury location could govern whether a suitable nerve was available for surgery. An injury that breaks or severely damages the spinal cord can cause permanent disability, with the extent set by exactly how far down the spine the damage has happened. Scientists are hunting for ways to repair that damage, including using growth-promoting chemicals to encourage healing across the 'gap', and grafts of nerve fibres from elsewhere in the body. The New York approach is slightly different - it takes one of the nerves that naturally leaves the spinal column, disconnects it from its destination, then plugs it back into the spinal cord using a protein "glue". In the case of the rats, this was a nerve heading for the abdominal muscles, which was taken just above a break in the spinal cord, and reattached below. After just two weeks, it became clear that the new arrangement was working, with the nerve growing and starting to form connections with its new neighbour. Sending electrical impulses down the spinal cord caused twitching in the lower limbs, again indicating that connections had been made. There were no ill-effects in the abdominal muscle, as other nerves connected to it compensated for the loss of one connection. (C)BBC

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 11291 - Posted: 02.07.2008

Silk may be able to help repair damaged nerves, according to scientists. The UK researchers have shown how nerve cells can grow along bundles of a special fibre, which has properties similar to spider silk. They hope the silk will encourage cell re-growth across severed nerves, possibly even in damaged spinal cords. A picture of nerve cells growing on the silk is one of the winning images in this year's Wellcome Trust Biomedical Image Awards. It is one of 26 images - many revealing objects invisible to the naked eye - captured from medical research programmes across Britain. The silk, dubbed Spidrex, comes from silk worms that have been modified to give the fibres special properties that help cells to bind. Professor John Priestley, a neuroscientist from Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry, London, and lead researcher, said the silk acted as a scaffold on which nerve cells could grow. The team has tested the silk in tissue culture (shown in the winning image) and in animals - and in both cases, said Professor Priestly, the results had been good. (C)BBC

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 9135 - Posted: 07.13.2006

CINCINNATI--The number of sites in children's brains involved in language recognition decreases as the children age, according to a University of Cincinnati (UC) study. The finding, says Jerzy Szaflarski, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of neurology at the UC Academic Health Center, suggests that as a child grows more language proficient, recalling words may involve less effort. It also supports earlier explanations as to why young children who injure a large part of one side of the brain often recover completely, or almost completely. Funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the study will be presented April 6 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in San Diego. The paper will also appear in print in the April Annals of Neurology. "The decrease in activity sites may mean that language areas in the brain are more flexible when children are younger and become more specialized as they mature," Dr. Szaflarski says. "This raises hope for rehabilitation of brain function in children after stroke or traumatic brain injuries," he says.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 8750 - Posted: 04.08.2006

Despite the prevailing belief that adult brain cells don't grow, a researcher at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory reports in the Dec. 27 issue of Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology that structural remodeling of neurons does in fact occur in mature brains. This finding means that it may one day be possible to grow new cells to replace ones damaged by disease or spinal cord injury, such as the one that paralyzed the late actor Christopher Reeve. "Knowing that neurons are able to grow in the adult brain gives us a chance to enhance the process and explore under what conditions -- genetic, sensory or other -- we can make that happen," said study co-author Elly Nedivi, the Fred and Carole Middleton Assistant Professor of Neurobiology. While scientists have focused mostly on trying to regenerate the long axons damaged in spinal cord injuries, the new finding suggests targeting a different part of the cell: the dendrite. A dendrite, from the Greek word for tree, is a branched projection of a nerve cell that conducts electrical stimulation to the cell body. "We do see relatively large-scale growth" in the dendrites, Nedivi said. "Maybe we would get some level of improvement (in spinal cord patients) by embracing dendritic growth." The growth is affected by use, meaning the more the neurons are used, the more likely they are to grow, she said.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 18: Attention and Higher Cognition
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 14: Attention and Higher Cognition
Link ID: 8341 - Posted: 12.29.2005

A team of scientists at UCSF has made a critical discovery that may help in the development of techniques to promote functional recovery after a spinal cord injury. By stimulating nerve cells in laboratory rats at the time of the injury and then again one week later, the scientists were able to increase the growth capacity of nerve cells and to sustain that capacity. Both factors are critical for nerve regeneration. The study, reported in the November 15 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, builds on earlier findings in which the researchers were able to induce cell growth by manipulating the nervous system before a spinal cord injury, but not after. Key to the research is an important difference in the properties of the nerve fibers of the central nervous system (CNS), which consists of the brain and spinal cord, and those of the peripheral nervous system (PNS), which is the network of nerve fibers that extends throughout the body. Nerve cells normally grow when they are young and stop when they are mature. When an injury occurs in CNS cells, the cells are unable to regenerate on their own. In PNS cells, however, an injury can stimulate the cells to regrow. PNS nerve regeneration makes it possible for severed limbs to be surgically reattached to the body and continue to grow and regain function.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity; Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System; Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization
Link ID: 8252 - Posted: 12.03.2005

By Gill Higgins Justin Richardson was an American student passionate about sport. But one night, a reckless dive into a shallow pool broke his neck. He was paralysed from the chest down and faced a life with no sensation at all in his lower limbs. But an experimental treatment appears to have made a difference. Justin says: "I can now feel most every single spot of my body. And I have my bladder control back now. I know when I need to use the rest room, which has improved my independence." Spontaneous recovery can occur. But Justin believes it is the treatment which has helped him. His medical team have been impressed. Therapist Rebecca Czarnecki, Spinal Cord Fitness Coordinator at the WakeMed Rehab Centre in North Carolina says: "Justin compared to other patients with a similar injury is above and beyond their ability." The treatment, called Procord, uses a type of white blood cell, called a macrophage, which is taken from the patient themselves. When an injury occurs in most parts of the body, such as a wound to the hand, the immune system activates a healing processes, in which macrophages play a part. This does not happen in the central nervous system, including the spinal cord, which is protected by the blood-brain barrier, a defence system blocking foreign substances in the body from reaching the nervous tissue. (C)BBC

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 7959 - Posted: 09.27.2005

Overview Combining partially differentiated stem cells with gene therapy can promote the growth of new "insulation" around nerve fibers in the damaged spinal cords of rats, a new study shows. The treatment, which mimics the activity of two nerve growth factors, also improves the animals' motor function and electrical conduction from the brain to the leg muscles. The finding may eventually lead to new ways of treating spinal cord injury in humans. Combining partially differentiated stem cells with gene therapy can promote the growth of new "insulation" around nerve fibers in the damaged spinal cords of rats, a new study shows. The treatment, which mimics the activity of two nerve growth factors, also improves the animals' motor function and electrical conduction from the brain to the leg muscles. The finding may eventually lead to new ways of treating spinal cord injury in humans. The study was funded in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health. The new study provides the best demonstration to date that producing a nerve-insulating substance called myelin can lead to functional improvements in animals with spinal cord injury. Previous studies have shown that the loss of myelin around nerve fibers contributes to the impaired function after a spinal cord injury. However, until now it has not been clear whether promoting new myelin growth in the spinal cord can reverse this damage, says Scott R. Whittemore, Ph.D., of the University of Louisville in Kentucky, who led the new study. "Many other investigators have suggested that remyelination is a possible approach to repair the spinal cord, but this is the first study to show unequivocally that it works," says Dr. Whittemore. "It is a proof of principle." Although the finding is promising, much work remains before such a technique could be used in humans. The study appears in the July 27, 2005, issue of the Journal of Neuroscience .*

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 7701 - Posted: 07.29.2005

Scientists say they have discovered a protein that could be injected to repair damaged nerves and brain cells. The protein, KDI tripeptide, works by blocking the harmful effects of a substance present in degenerative brain diseases and spinal cord injuries. By blocking this substance, called glutamate, KDI prevents permanent cell death and helps the body heal itself. The Finnish work from the University of Helsinki will be published online by the Journal of Neuroscience Research. So far the researchers have tested KDI in the lab on animals and nerve cells from humans. The findings have been promising and they hope to be able to begin treating people with nerve and degenerative brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, using KDI injections within a year. Since KDI occurs naturally in some form in the body, researchers do not believe it will have major toxic side effects. None have been noted during their work to date. Lead researcher Dr Päivi Liesi said: "We have had such good results with animals that I think it is totally feasible we would be ready to start human clinical trials within a year." Currently, KDI has to be injected as a solution directly to the damaged area. However, in the future it might be possible to make the treatment as an oral drug or an intravenous injection, said Dr Liesi. Her work builds on that of Dr George Martin from the National Institute on Ageing, at the US National Institutes of Health, who first discovered the molecule that KDI is derived from. Dr Martin said: "This represents a new approach and one with considerable promise. (C)BBC

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 7681 - Posted: 07.25.2005

Irvine, Calif., -- A treatment derived from human embryonic stem cells improves mobility in rats with spinal cord injuries, providing the first physical evidence that the therapeutic use of these cells can help restore motor skills lost from acute spinal cord tissue damage. Hans Keirstead and his colleagues in the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at UC Irvine have found that a human embryonic stem cell-derived treatment they developed was successful in restoring the insulation tissue for neurons in rats treated seven days after the initial injury, which led to a recovery of motor skills. But the same treatment did not work on rats that had been injured for 10 months. The findings point to the potential of using stem cell-derived therapies for treatment of spinal cord damage in humans during the very early stages of the injury. The study appears in the May 11 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. "We're very excited with these results. They underscore the great potential that stem cells have for treating human disease and injury," Keirstead said. "This study suggests one approach to treating people who've just suffered spinal cord injury, although there is still much work to do before we can engage in human clinical tests." Acute spinal cord damage occurs during the first few weeks of the injury. In turn, the chronic period begins after a few months. It is anticipated that the stem cell treatment in humans will occur during spinal stabilization at the acute phase, when rods and ties are placed in the spinal column to restabilize it after injury.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity; Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System; Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 7330 - Posted: 05.11.2005

A treatment that has helped paralysed dogs to move could also help people, researchers have claimed. Veterinary surgeons from the University of Cambridge have treated nine dogs, who were all able to move their hind leg jerkily, within a month. The treatment takes nerve cells from the brain and injects them into the damaged part of the spinal cord. An expert from the Institute of Neurology said he believed the same benefits could be seen in humans. An Australian team has already treated humans with OEG cells, but the results will not be published until 2007. The UK researchers studied dogs which had been paralysed in road accidents, or through spinal cord injuries. All had been unable to move for at least three months. The treatment uses olfactory ensheathing glia (OEG) cells, which are present at the back of the nose. They are the only nerve cells capable of constant regeneration. The cells were collected by opening the dogs' skulls. They were then multiplied in the lab, and injected into the spinal cord. In addition to regaining some movement, the animals also appeared to recover some sensation below the injury site. Three can now warn their owners if they need to empty their bladder, although they have not regained control. The researchers say there is no indication the dogs can feel pain again but, by the same token, they do not appear to be suffering pain from a severed nerve - a potential side effect of the treatment. (C)BBC

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 7190 - Posted: 04.14.2005

Despite the efforts of advocates such as the late Christopher Reeve pushing for more research to find a cure for spinal cord injuries, international research efforts have been slow to progress out of the lab and into the clinic. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, neither the scientific community nor thousands of Americans who have been paralyzed by spinal cord injuries are happy with the limited treatment options currently available. The report points out "an obvious and urgent need to identify and test new interventions and to accelerate the pace of research." "We're talking about a burden here of about 11 thousand new cases a year in this country," says Jeremiah Barondess, President of the New York Academy of Medicine, who served on the IOM committee that produced the report. "It?s a tremendous tragedy, a quarter of a million people are living in the U.S. with chronic spinal injury." The last few decades of research have led to significant progress in the field, improving patient survival and rehabilitation options, as well as emergency medical treatment. Additionally, recent advances in neuroscience research are opening up new opportunities for the development of therapeutic approaches. "I think the field is poised now for really striking advances because of what's been learned in neurobiology in the last ten or a dozen years," Barondess says. (C) ScienCentral, 2000-2005.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 7142 - Posted: 04.05.2005

Long distance messengers star in many heroic tales, perhaps the most famous being the one about the runner who carried the news about the victory of the Greeks over the Persians in the fateful battle of Marathon. A team of researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science has now discovered how molecular messengers perform a crucial role in the ability of injured nerve cells to heal themselves. A nerve cell has a cell body and a long extension, called an axon, which in humans can reach up to one meter in length. Nerve cells belonging to the peripheral nervous system can regrow when their axons are damaged. But how does the damaged axon inform the cell body that it must start producing vital proteins for the healing? That's precisely where the molecular messengers, proteins called Erk-1 and Erk-2, enter the picture. When the axon is injured, these proteins bind to molecules of phosphorus. In this phosphorylated state, they can communicate to command centers in the cell, transmitting a message that activates certain genes in the cell body, which then manufactures proteins that are vital for the healing of the injured axon. The problem is that the messengers must transmit their phosphorus message over a great distance along the axon, and in the course of this arduous journey can easily lose their phosphorus en route.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization
Link ID: 6962 - Posted: 03.03.2005

Among the principal obstacles to regenerating spinal cord and brain cells after injury is the "braking" machinery in neurons that prevents regeneration. While peripheral nerves have no such machinery and can readily regenerate, central nervous system (CNS) neurons have their brakes firmly in place and locked. Now, two groups of scientists have independently found a new component of that braking machinery, adding to understanding of the regulation of neuronal regeneration and of possible treatments to switch off the brakes on regrowth of spinal cord or brain tissue. The two groups--one group led by Jong Bae Park, Glenn Yiu, and colleagues from Children's Hospital Boston and the other led by Sha Mi and colleagues of Biogen Idec, Inc.--discovered that a protein variously called TAJ or TROY acts as an important part of the receptor on neurons that responds to growth-inhibitory molecules in myelin. Specifically, these molecules prevent the growth of the cablelike axons of injured neurons. Myelin is the fatty sheath that encases neurons and acts as an insulator and aid to the transmission of nerve impulses. Researchers knew that CNS neurons had receptors on their surface that accepted the inhibitory molecules--like a key fitting a lock--and switched-on inhibitory signaling within the neuron. They had also shown that a protein called p75 could function as a component of the complex of proteins that make up this receptor. The puzzle, however, was that p75 is not widely made in the adult neurons in which this inhibitory receptor complex is known to function.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization
Link ID: 6804 - Posted: 02.03.2005

By Richard Warry Many people paralysed from the neck down in the prime of life would be tempted to give up on life. Christopher Reeve, who died on Monday, was certainly not one of them. The actor admitted that he briefly thought of suicide in the dark days following his appalling riding accident. But instead, he fought a courageous battle, not just against his own paralysis, but as a tireless campaigner for medical research to find new ways to aid others in a similar position. Reeve, in particular, was a high-profile advocate of the use of stem cells in research. These are the body's master cells with the ability to become any type of tissue. Scientists believe they will eventually be used to treat a range of medical conditions - including spinal paralysis. Their use, however, is steeped in controversy. The most effective stem cells come from embryos, and many people have serious doubts about the morality of using tissue which they argue has the ability to become another human life. In the US, this type of research is effectively banned, save for limited work on lines of cells that have already been created. Reeve played a leading role in trying to get the ban lifted. (C)BBC

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity; Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System; Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6221 - Posted: 10.11.2004

A combination therapy using transplanted cells plus two experimental drugs significantly improves function in paralyzed rats, a new study shows. The results suggest that a similar therapy may be useful in humans with spinal cord injury. The study was funded in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health, and appears in the June 2004 issue of Nature Medicine.* About 10,000 people in the United States suffer spinal cord injuries each year. Studies in animals during the past decade have shown that supporting cells from nerves outside the brain and spinal cord, called Schwann cells, can be used to make a "bridge" across the damaged spinal cord that encourages nerve fibers to regrow. Other research has suggested that a substance called cyclic AMP (cyclic adenosine monophosphate) can turn on growth factor genes in nerve cells, stimulating growth and helping to overcome signals that normally inhibit regeneration. This study is the first to try a combination of the two approaches in an animal model of spinal cord injury. In the new study, Mary Bartlett Bunge, Ph.D., Damien Pearse, Ph.D., and colleagues at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami School of Medicine, found that spinal cord injury triggers a loss of cAMP in the spinal cord and in some parts of the brain. They then transplanted Schwann cells into the spinal cords of rats in a way that bridged the damaged area. The researchers also gave the rats a form of cAMP and a drug called rolipram, which prevents cAMP from being broken down.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 5515 - Posted: 05.24.2004

A preliminary study has shown for the first time that it may be possible to help people who have suffered partial damage to their spinal cord by applying a magnetic therapy to their brain. Writing in this month's Spinal Cord, a team of UK doctors describe how patients with incomplete spinal cord injuries received repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), leading to improvements in their ability to move muscles and limbs, and ability to feel sensations. rTMS uses an electromagnet placed on the scalp to generate brief magnetic pulses, about the strength of an MRI scan, which stimulate the part of the brain called the cerebral cortex. Incomplete spinal cord injuries are a type of spinal injury where the spinal cord has not been entirely severed, but the patient has still lost the ability to move or feel properly below the injury point.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System
Link ID: 5442 - Posted: 05.11.2004

System for guiding cell migration, adhesion has biomedical and regenerative medical applications by Nicolle Wahl -- Scientists at the University of Toronto are taking regenerative medicine to a new dimension with a process for guiding nerve cells that could someday help reconnect severed nerve endings. Molly Shoichet, a professor of chemical engineering and applied chemistry at the Institute for Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), has devised a new method that helps guide cell migration and adhesion. "We're very interested in using this system for biomedical applications and regenerative medicine, specifically for guiding nerve cells," says Shoichet, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Tissue Engineering. In the study, Shoichet and doctoral student Ying Luo combined a gel-like substance called agarose with compounds having "photolabile" properties that change chemically when exposed to light. When they directed laser light at the gel, its chemical composition changed, creating a "channel" through the gel. Although not a physical channel, the interaction created a "growth-friendly" chemical pathway through the agarose.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization; Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization; Chapter 4: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 5177 - Posted: 03.24.2004

By CLAUDIA FELDMAN, Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle A local researcher has advanced the search for cures for central nervous system injuries by using a naturally occurring substance produced in the body to eliminate scar formation and promote nerve regeneration. "It's major," says Stephen Davies, who hopes the seeds of his research one day will help patients with paralysis and head injuries. Davies' work with rats and the anti-scarring agent called decorin was published earlier this week in the European Journal of Neuroscience. He says decorin, administered directly to the spinal cord injury with a tiny pump, suppressed inflammation and scar formation. Decorin also provided a hospitable environment for new nerve fibers to grow, pass through the injury site and keep growing. Without the decorin, Davies found the scar tissue presented a physical and molecular barrier to nerve fiber growth.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity; Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System; Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization
Link ID: 5121 - Posted: 03.13.2004

By CLAUDIA FELDMAN, Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle A local researcher has advanced the search for cures for central nervous system injuries by using a naturally occurring substance produced in the body to eliminate scar formation and promote nerve regeneration. "It's major," says Stephen Davies, who hopes the seeds of his research one day will help patients with paralysis and head injuries. Davies' work with rats and the anti-scarring agent called decorin was published earlier this week in the European Journal of Neuroscience. He says decorin, administered directly to the spinal cord injury with a tiny pump, suppressed inflammation and scar formation. Decorin also provided a hospitable environment for new nerve fibers to grow, pass through the injury site and keep growing. Without the decorin, Davies found the scar tissue presented a physical and molecular barrier to nerve fiber growth.

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 11: Motor Control and Plasticity; Chapter 19: Language and Lateralization
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 5: The Sensorimotor System; Chapter 15: Language and Lateralization
Link ID: 5120 - Posted: 03.13.2004

Scientists believe they have taken a big step forward in their effort to be able to repair damaged nerves. Researchers at Harvard Medical School say they have had some success trying to regenerate optic nerves in rats. Writing in the Journal of Neuroscience they said while they were unable to restore sight they achieved three times more regeneration compared to others. Finding a way to re-grow nerves could lead to cures for a wide range of conditions from blindness to paralysis. Any injuries that cause damage to nerves tend to be permanent. This is because nerve cells cannot regenerate or repair themselves. Scientists around the world are working on projects aimed at finding a way to get nerves to re-grow. One of the reasons nerves are unable to regenerate is that proteins in the outer layer of nerve fibres are programmed to stop re-growth. (C) BBC

Related chapters from BN: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 10: Vision: From Eye to Brain
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 4: Development of the Brain; Chapter 7: Vision: From Eye to Brain
Link ID: 5057 - Posted: 03.01.2004