May 31, 2012

paralysed rats learn to walk again

Swiss research describes the stimulation of neurons connected to the injured spinal cords of paralysed rats to repair damage, to the extent that the rats can learn to walk again. The quote below was sent out in addition to those from the Australian SMC.

Dr Elizabeth Bradbury, Medical Research Council Senior Fellow, King’s College London, said:

“In a series of elegant experiments Grégoire Courtine and his team of researchers used a combination of electrical and chemical stimulation plus robotic training to ‘kick-start’ the paralysed spinal cord into action.

“This combination approach enabled an unprecedented degree of “neuroplasticity” to occur (the ability of the nervous system to change and adapt), leading to significant rewiring of brain and spinal connections which enabled severely paralysed rats to recover control of locomotor function.
“This is ground-breaking research and offers great hope for the future of restoring function to spinal injured patients. However, some questions remain before we know how useful this approach may be in humans.

“Firstly, will this approach work in contusion/compression type injuries? These injuries involve blunt trauma, bruising and compression of the spinal cord and are the most common form of human spinal cord injury. Very few human spinal cord injuries occur as a result of a direct cut through spinal tissue (as was the injury model in the Courtine study).

“Secondly, will this technique work in chronic (long-term) spinal injuries? It is not yet known whether it is possible to generate extensive neuroplasticity in a system that has been injured for a long time and now contains many more complications such as abundant scar tissue, large holes in the spinal cord and where many spinal nerve cells and long range nerve fibres have died or degenerated.

“These are questions which I am sure Courtine and his team intend to follow up.

“Finally, while this is a significant step in the search for an effective therapy for spinal cord injury, the search for regenerative therapies should also continue alongside this type of approach. The Holy Grail in spinal injury research is still to find a regenerative strategy that will repair the injured spinal cord and allow damaged nerves to re-grow and reconnect to their target cells.

“Nevertheless this work represents a significant advance for research into repairing the injured spinal cord.”

‘Restoring Voluntary Control of Locomotion after Paralyzing Spinal Cord Injury’, Courtine et al., Science, VOL 336, June 1, 2012.