Stem Cells Cure Paralyzed Rats

An anonymous reader writes "According to an article on Forbes as well as other sources, 'Scientists have used [embryonic] stem cells and a soup of nerve-friendly chemicals to not just bridge a damaged spinal cord but actually regrow the circuitry needed to move a muscle, helping partially paralyzed rats walk.'"

Comments

If only...

[Spad]

If only they put this much time and effort into finding cures for human conditions instead of wasting it all on rodents. Bloody mice get all the breaks.

Re:If only...

[Anonymous Coward]

Where is your cynicism?

The only reason they're developing medical techniques for rats is that soon the politicians will be the only ones able to afford them, so they might as well ensure that the techniques they will use are compatible.

Re:If only...

[I Like Pudding]

If only they put this much time and effort into finding cures for human conditions instead of wasting it all on rodents.

Please. Broken spine? Cured! Mysterious foot pain? Cured! Crippling halitosis? Cured!

Re:If only...

[oudzeeman]

while it would suck having to give up my girlfriends, at least I would still have my wife

Re:If only...

[deadlinegrunt]

"while it would suck having to give up my girlfriends, at least I would still have my wife"

Wait - you have girlfriends and a wife? And you are a /. user? So the girlfriend thinks you are with the wife and the wife thinks you are with the girlfriend - leaving more time for the computer. Brilliant!

Re:If only...

[Thomas Miconi]

while it would suck having to give up my girlfriends, at least I would still have my wife

I'm confused. Which one is the rat ?

For those

[celardore]

For those rats who did not regain use of their limbs after the experiment, little miniature wheelchairs and sticks were provided.

Let's just tell the animal rights protestors that anyway.

Re:For those

[MancunianMaskMan]

I am a rat, you insensitive clod (or so my friends say anyway).

Oh wait... I haven't got any.

Re:For those

[Idarubicin]

Let's just tell the animal rights protestors that anyway.

Please don't tell the animal rights people anything. Please! Tell them that we're working with nuclear weapons or lasers or something.

One of my coworkers worked in a Drosophilia (fruit fly) lab as a summer student some number of years ago. One Monday morning, he came in to the lab to wryly smiling colleagues. Apparently, animal rights activists had broken in to the lab over the weekend, and set all of the fruit flies 'free'. Unfortunately, this particular lab was working with curly-wing and wingless mutants, so the freed flies took a few tottering steps, then fell out of their open tubes and collected on the floor.

This is amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

We must immediately ensure that this life-changing new medical technology is placed under a raft of arbitrary and politically motivated legal restrictions.

We must do this as quickly as possible. For science!

John Hopkins == NIHM!!

[bloodredsun]

Life imitates Art yet again.

...literally...

[OscarBlock]

From the article ""They did something that people have been trying to do for at least 30 years and literally hit a brick wall until now," said Dr. Naomi Keitman..."

Is this why they developed an interest in repairing spinal cord injuries? I think we should be told...

Got ya

[overbaud]

"bridge a damaged spinal cord" so if anyone is thinking of sticking their head in a life sized rat trap... good news!

Question

[Francisco_G]

Who paralyzes the rats in the first place? Do the scientists step on 'em?

Re:Question

[Anonymous Coward]

Spinal injuries are pretty common sports injuries so the real question is did the scientist have to teach the rats to ski and play football first? I can't believe there are enough wheel accidents to provide a decent test group.

Re:Question

[ceeam]

You say "back breaker" and I imagine 300 pounds wrestler doing piledrivers and shit on poor mice.... Ooh.. Nice.

Miracle

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't be silly. Jesus cured those rats, and He would have cured even more of them if those godless scientists hadn't been mucking about with evil stem cells...

soup of nerve-friendly chemicals

[losec]

thats what i'm going to call long island ice tea from now on.

I for one

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcome our recently unparalyzed rat overlords.

Geeze

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

I wish I could be a rat, they can cure paralysis, aids, being overweight, being underweight, many types of cancer, mood disorders, aggression, lots of diseases and I even think baldness.

Groups like Peta think that rats are abused in laboratories, but they don't realize how easy a life they have it. Scientists are curing all sorts of problems in rats, making it easier for rats to survive. Billions of dollars are spent every year to cure rat problems.

I just wish that scientists would start curing stuff in humans, it would be nice if one of these days they started applying these discoveries on humans and maybe helping the human race out. If they could just take some of those billions spent on rat research and put it towards humans, what a wonderful world it would be.

So, hurray, scientists cure something else in some lab rat! Let me know when they start working on humans.

Re:This is what we're talking about

[stud9920]

Meanwhile in Europe, 400m godless baby eaters are wondering what the fuss is all about, if they even are aware of it...

Re:I once saw...

[Fred_A]

The most likely scenario is that she ran her dog over with that electric wheelchair...