Stem Cells Might Help Reverse Spinal Cord Damage

Posting Date: 01/07/2000

There?s some promising research going on that may help people paralyzed by spinal cord injuries. The stumbling block is that the experimental therapy is controversial because it involves fetal cell transplants.

I don?t know about you, but if I had a loved one with a fatal disease or serious injury who could be cured with fetal cell transplants, I wouldn?t hesitate to pursue the treatment.

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Human fetal cell research is being opposed because scientists use cells from aborted embryos, even though these embryos would otherwise be discarded. New techniques will allow us to grow stem cells in laboratories from original tissue, which may quiet some of the critics.

In a remarkable study with rats, scientists have shown that transplants of fetal cells were able to regenerate damaged spinal cords and restore movement to limbs.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine say they?ve been able to restore the movement of paralyzed back legs in 28 rats with spinal traumas by injecting them with fetal mouse embryo cells. What?s particularly important is the therapy worked nine days after the rats received a crushing blow to the spine.

Roughly one million embryonic stem cells were injected into the nervous system cells of the rats, all of which regained the ability to stand on four legs and walk within two weeks. A control group of 34 spinal-injury rats that weren?t given the injections remained crippled, according to a report in Science News.

The researchers say while most transplanted stem cells die off within a couple weeks, enough survive for the animals to have a growing supply of new nervous system cells with new neurons and axons extending up to one centimeter from the injection site.

I think the implication of this research is pretty clear. Fetal cell implants have a potential to restore damaged spinal cord cells and cure some types of injuries that paralyze people.

When it comes to research that has the potential to cure stubborn conditions, we should avoid taking extreme positions. There may be some ethical questions involved, but they can be solved if we keep an open mind and remember the potential benefits of this science.

Source: Science News, Jan. 1, 2000