Damaged Spinal Cord "Rewires" Itself With Help of Electrical Stimulation

the_newsbeagle writes: Many prior experiments that tried to restore function after a spinal cord injury have used electrical stimulation to replace the signals from the brain, essentially implanting a replacement nervous system. But a new project instead used electrical stimulation to encourage the natural nervous system to adapt to a severe injury. When researchers repeatedly jolted a rat's damaged spinal cord at the precise moment that it tried to move a paralyzed limb, its nervous system developed new neural pathways that detoured around the site of injury in the spine. Researchers don't think it grew new neurons, but think instead that new connections formed between surviving neurons.

Comments

Mary Shelly was right after all?

[ColdWetDog]

Frankenstein.

Re:Mary Shelly was right after all?

[gstoddart]

You know, since Galvani discovered you could make a dead frog twitch with electricity, people have been looking for the magical properties of electricity. The sheer amount of quackery involving electricity is mind boggling

Nerves and neurons are, essentially, little electrical connections.

So, yeah, I'm not sure why anybody would be surprised by that.

Or that there's actually some useful things which can come out of it too.

What Fires Together Wires Together

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm glad the medical industry is starting to catch up with the sex industry. People into advanced sexual practices already know if you stimulate another part of the body in the same way and time as you stimulate your genitals you'll eventually be able to orgasm from just stimulating that other part of your body.

The brain can adapt to almost anything as long as there's a feedback loop. Adding the electrical stimulation greatly enhances that feedback loop. Think of carving out a stream with a trickle of water vs a pressurized hose. Of course there's a difference between thinking you know something and scientifically proving it. Good for them.

Could this be combined with Pig Bladder Powder?

[macs4all]

There is a recent story about a man regrowing a chopped-off fingertip (bone, flesh, fingernail, even fingerprint!) when he put some "extracellular matrix" derived from pig bladder tissue (which is normally a waste product) onto his fingertip-stub.

So, I wonder if this would work with spinal-cord injuries, and possibly enhanced with electrical stimulation.

Re:Could this be combined with Pig Bladder Powder?

[HuntingHades]

The challenge there is actually getting the extra cellular matrix into the spinal cord while avoiding infection and other possible complications.

Re:Could this be combined with Pig Bladder Powder?

[macs4all]

The challenge there is actually getting the extra cellular matrix into the spinal cord while avoiding infection and other possible complications.

I'm not sure what infections there would be; the extracellular matrix is sterile (I think). As for "other complications", perhaps this could even be done laproscopically, to minimize intrusion/complications.

Re:Could this be combined with Pig Bladder Powder?

[tgrigsby]

Highly doubtful. Extra-cellular matrix derived from pig's bladder (referred to by researchers as "pixie dust") is essentially collagen, and retards the scarring process that ends skin and sub-dermal tissue regeneration. This is not the same, though, as encouraging neurons to regenerate or even just to rewire.

Re:Oh for fucks sake...

[Firethorn]

I don't normally respond to ACs, but I think it was even more than 15 years ago that I saw my grandfather using an electro-stimulation system.

My grandfather has spinal damage from both polio and industrial accident. The stimulation system was intended to do much what the Op proposes, and I think it was closer to 25 years ago that I saw him using it.

Now, the 'giving the shock just as you attempt to use it' is a new bit. I think gramps just turned it on for a prescribed period.

Head Transplant in 2017

[KatchooNJ]

I sure hope they find some serious advancements in this before that guy gets his head transplant in 2017, which was announced just the other day.

Personal Experience

[ToxicBanjo]

Although not scientifically documented as such I can personally confirm this appears to be the case.

After I damaged my spinal cord I had to take a series of tests to verify my nerve conductivity and signal strength was okay. I took these tests over a year and my last series showed, without a doubt, that my nerves had created new connections to essentially get around the damaged areas. I had regained signal strength.

I didn't have stimulation, just the testing so I think in my case it was just regular healing, but if there is a way to stimulate and increase the effects then awesome, I wish I had that opportunity! Anyone with a back injury will probably agree, we'd do just about anything to get our health on track again.

Re:Personal Experience

[Mashiki]

Yep. The body can heal around spinal/neural damage, though it's very hit-and-miss and generally there's not a complete healing. Like in your experience though, the body can naturally regain some signal strength and function depending on the severity of the damage and how soon it is treated.
Direct spinal electrical stimulation sounds like agony though. We'll have to see if this treatment is promising enough to eventually reach human trials.

Well I'd take short term pain vs long term pain which is what I have now, if it could have done more to repair the damage to my spine. Back ~5-6 years ago I broke my C2 and C3, and though a hell of a lot of physio, and plain old determination I'm back to about 75-80% of where I was then. Can't run anymore though, I can walk and well. Can't do pullups or pushups anymore either, and the pain...well I'd say that it's bad. It's not as bad as when I had testicular torsion which I'd rank at a 10, this is about a 7-9 most days. And considering I eat narcotic painkillers and muscle relaxants for when the spasms start, I'd take anything over that if there was even a painful treatment in the short term.

Re:Ending with speculation.

[Chikungunya]

Maybe because it takes a higher amount of time, money and expertise to explain it? There is value in describing something that nobody else has tried, even if only to direct people with more resources to work in that.