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First Embryonic Stem Cell Clinical Trial Imminent
An anonymous reader writes "California-based Geron has announced that the first embryonic stem cell trial may be in the not-so-distant future. Tom Okarma, Geron's CEO, recently announced that the company will be seeking permission from the FDA to begin clinical trials. From the article: 'Geron's plan is to treat people that have acute spinal injuries with oligodendrocyte progenitor cells grown from human ESCs. Oligodendrocyte cells support neurons in the brain and spine by sheathing them in myelin, a fat that helps neurons to transmit signals.'"
Ethanol does have an effect on transmission (specifically it reduces excitability and increases the effectiveness of GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter), but those are effects on action potential generation. Myelination from oligodendrocytes just increases the ability of an already generated action potential to reach the end of the axon and cause synaptic activity. So the oligodendrocytes' effect is sort of like plugging holes in a leaking pipe, whereas the effect of alcohol is more like decreasing the chance that water will actually enter the pipe in the first place. Which is to say: alcohol's work is already done before the myelination comes into play, so increasing the latter won't much affect the former. (IAA neuroscientist, but admitedly this isn't my area of expertise so I may be slightly wrong).