Nose Cells to Cure Spinal Injuries?

dptalia writes "The Guardian has an article on how nose cells may cure spinal injuries. This technique has worked with rats, restoring feeling and movement to limbs damaged by severed nerves. The initial trial will be on people who have lost control of an arm due to the nerves being pulled from the spinal cord." From the article: "If successful, with refinement and research the procedure could be tried on people in a wheelchair. It also has the potential to heal other nerve injuries, such as those caused by stroke, blindness and deafness."

Comments

Too bad...

[Reverend Darkness]

... too bad Michael Jackson lost his chance to use this technology years ago...

CNS injuries

[Brown Eggs]

I don't think this technique (alone) could help with CNS injuries. From what I remember ( I did a prelim exam on nerve regeneration during graduate school) the CNS is immunosuppressed. That means that macrophages cannot enter the site of trauma to clear away debris from dead or damaged cells. This debris has been shown to INHIBIT nerve growth/regrowth. This limitation is not really there in PNS damage. If the "nose technique" is coupled with something to remove the debris (or to LOCALLY allow macrophages back into the vicinity of the trauma) then it might be successful. I for one think this is excellent work with some tremendous potential.

Re:CNS injuries

[the_humeister]

Any neuropathology, or even surgical pathology text book will detail this. Here's an excerpt from the Diagnostic Surgical Pathology by Sternberg: "Phagocytic cells may be seen in any condition that involves parenchymal necrosis (Fig. 6B). The origin of any particular phagocytic cell cannot be determined since the phagocytic population consists of activated local microglia and blood monocytes entering the brain parenchyma in response to damage. Its fate may be to remain at the injury or migrate elsewhere 13. Thus, the inclusive term brain macrophages seems to be the most appropriate." Although you may still be correct since the above process usually involves a break in the vasculature no matter how minute. Other processes, such as spongiform encephalopathy, don't have inflammatory cells as one of the findings.

Funny comments, but my question is this

[CodeShark]

--as me dons the flame retardant pajamas output--

If scientists can find enough of the body's own "self repairing tissue" areas, (plus the stem cells available from umbilical cords, etc.) wouldn't it obviate the need for embryonic stem cell research with all of it's accompanying moral and ethical controversies?

What do the /.'ers think?

Re:Funny comments, but my question is this

[xtal]

wouldn't it obviate the need for embryonic stem cell research with all of it's accompanying moral and ethical controversies?


More interesting will be what will happen when China, Russia and other countries who are advancing stem cell research develop cures and better treatments than are available in North America. How many people would change their tune, if, for example, a cure for prostate cancer or heart disease came out of such research?

Re:Funny comments, but my question is this

[paranode]

Such blasphemy! No cure at all is better than Satan's cure!!

Recently a successful vaccine for cervical cancer was developed, but guess which radical fundamentalist population group was against it because they thought that vaccinating teenage girls against cervical cancer would promote promiscuity? These types are just insane...

Diabetes?

[foobaric]

Although the article doesn't mention it, this could be a big step ahead for people with diabetes who have developed diabetic neuropathy. I have heard people wish they were dead rather than deal with the painful, distracting, and life-altering side-effects of this affliction.

Being a Type 1 diabetic myself, this is one of the biggest concerns - second only to blindness - that I worry about on a regular basis. Personally, this gives me hope that even if we can't eliminate diabetes altogether, we can at least improve the quality of life for those that do have it and develop associated ailments.

More complete version.

[DrYak]

What your teachers meant, was that white blood cells don't *normally* cross the brain/blood barrier and enter the CNS.
- That's the way herpes and zona hides : the virus stays dormant in neurons.
but
When there's an infection, like an encephalitis, some white blood cells (like lymphoncytes), may cross the barrier to come and clean up the disease.
In case of CNS damage, like a stroke, white blood cells do cross the brain barrier to come and try to clean up the mess.

The remaining mess is only part of the problem.
Another part, which isn't adressed by this nose-method (and that's why they say that it won't work with old and heavy spinal damages) is the scar : fibroblast come and refill the damaged hole with non-nervouse "useless" fibrotic material.
Another part of the problem is the inhibition of regrowth :
In PNS the supporting cells (schwan) try to help and encourage regrowth by helping cleaning the path and lining and guiding.
In CNS the glial cells try to close and isolate the damaged region (trying to re-create the broken barrier ?).

That's why they are first trying to solve small-scale problems like thorn nerve roots (more a "inhibition of regrowth" problem).
There are several way to try to fix this :

- One way is to try to stop the inhibition. Some researcher showed in a conference that using a few drugs (include eostrogen as far as I remember) they stoped this inhibition and encouraged the regrowth. Mice with (surgical and therefor "clean" scar-less) spinal section were able to walk again.

This is the "find a drug and patent it" method that the authors of this article are criticizing, but which is favored by private companies (because of the money and possible return on investments).

This reaserchers method is different : in the nose (which like the eye is CNS system, despite the fact we call it olphactive and optical "nerves") the nerves seem to be able to regrow (no inhibition to regrowth, despite being in the CNS). And he has (successfuly tried) to transplant such cell to other sites of injury (small scale, no scar involved) and obtain same uninhibited regrowth.
(this research is only likely to be seen in an university).

Note:
I have a master in medecine so I can give you these extra infromation. But on the other hand, that's not my specialty, and is only simplified from what i remember. Is there any neurologist on slashdot who could give a better explanation ?