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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (6048)	1/31/2005 10:10:43 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 360927

Fresh hope for spinal injury victims SHAN ROSS January 31 2005 HUMAN spinal motor nerves have been grown in a laboratory for the first time in a breakthrough which scientists believe will have far-reaching implications for the treatment of devastating injuries and diseases. Motor nerves branch out from the spinal cord and brain to transmit messages which dictate almost every movement in the body. The success announced by US scientists could help the victims of spinal cord injuries or lead to new treatments for crippling disorders such as motor neurone disease. Researchers also hope the results will be used to treat incurable conditions such as Parkinson's and insulin-dependent diabetes. They also predict that it could have potential in repairing injury to hearts and nerves. In the shorter term, it will allow scientists to create motor neurone modelling systems for screening new drugs. The discovery by a team of researchers at the Wisconsin-Madison University in the US came after years of failed experiments and resulted from taking a "bold gamble" in departing from standard procedures. ESCs are unprogrammed "blank slate" cells taken from early-stage embryos which have the ability to replicate indefinitely and develop into any of the 220 different cells and tissues in the body. However, the problem was that for the new therapies to work, stem cells have to be coaxed along specific paths of development to become the desired kinds of tissue. The cells have to be exposed to an array of complex chemical cocktails-growth factors and hormones – at precisely the right times. Dr Su-Chun Zhang, who headed the motor neurone research team, said in a report published today in the Nature Biotechnology journal: "You need to teach the embryonic stem cells to change step by step, where each step has different conditions and a strict window of time. Otherwise it just won't work." The team is now trying to find out if the newly-generated neurones can communicate with other cells when transplanted into a living animal and intend conducting tests using chicken embryos. David Allan, director of the Queen Elizabeth spinal injuries unit at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, welcomed the research but cautioned against any over-optimism. He said: "This is likely to be one piece in the jigsaw but not the whole answer. It will certainly not be a 'Star Wars zap you better' cure. It is likely that a cocktail of chemicals and cells will eventually be used to help partial recovery." There are about 2000 people suffering from spinal injuries in Scotland, and last year the unit, which accepts patients from all over the country, admitted 80 new patients. Every year, 120 Scots are diagnosed with motor neurone disease, with 105,000 people diagnosed world-wide. theherald.co.uk