Scientists in America have made breakthrough in repairing the damaged spinal cords of rats.
Somewhere in a lab in America right now, every single day is
dedicated to giving rats control of their bladders. Some people might look at
that and think that their work is unimportant, but in actuality, they couldn’t
be farther from the truth.
Let me explain. For decades now labs across the world have transplanted
nerve cells into paralysed animals in an attempt to return some of their
function by connecting two areas of disconnected spinal cord. However, trying
to get these cells to connect to each other has proved difficult, mainly due to
the scar tissue which forms on damaged tissue which prevents cellular
regeneration.
That is, until now. Successful results have now been gained
from scientists in America who have performed excruciatingly complex surgery on
paralysed rats to transplant nerves to fix the gap in their spinal cord. This,
in combination with a cocktail of injections and chemicals which breaks down
scar tissue and encourages cellular growth, has resulted in injured nerve cells
kick starting their own growth for the very first time.
As you can tell from the title of this post, the rats didn’t
miraculously jump up and start dancing about. However, what they did do is
regain control of their bladder. Whilst on its own that might not seem like
much, when you consider what this breakthrough means for future studies, the
knock on effect could be astronomical, giving paralysed patients back a piece
of their dignity.
The next step in this research will be recreating this
technique in larger and larger animals, without any sign of negative side
effects, until eventually it can be used on humans.
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