Healing spinal cords?
Interesting article from Wired about researchers who have been able to heal rats with crushed spinal cords. The research sparked controversy when it was first announced a while ago because it treated the rats with humanembryonic stem cells, which come from embryos (that are destroyed in the process) and are opposed by some groups of people. These cells have the power to become any other type of cell in the human body, and when injected into the rats they found their way to where they were needed most - the spinal cord. In rats with recent injuries (7 days) the rats were able to walk and use their tails again. This was pretty impressive proof of the power of embryonic stem cells. Unfortunately, it turns out that older injuries (10 months) can’t be healed in the same way, perhaps due to scar tissue.
Best of all, they’re considering human trials as early as next year, 2006! I’m always feel that when someone develops a technology or treatment such as this that is something that “might” become useful 10-15 years from now. It’s always hard to believe that it might become a practical reality only a few years from now. Very exciting! Of course, as pointed out above, it seems that this treatment would only work if applied very shortly after the injury, which would help long-term sufferers. But none-the-less, this is pretty amazing.