Christie & Mendez (2001): Neural transplantation in spinal cord injury

[Wise Young]

• Christie SD and Mendez I (2001). Neural transplantation in spinal cord injury. Can J Neurol Sci. 28 (1): 6-15. Summary: Although medical advancements have significantly increased the survival of spinal cord injury patients, restoration of function has not yet been achieved. Neural transplantation has been studied over the past decade in animal models as a repair strategy for spinal cord injury. Although spinal cord neural transplantation has yet to reach the point of clinical application and much work remains to be done, reconstructive strategies offer the greatest hope for the treatment of spinal cord injury in the future. This article presents the scientific basis of neural transplantation as a repair strategy and reviews the current status of neural transplantation in spinal cord injury. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?db=m&form=6&dopt=r&uid=11252297> Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

[This message was edited by Wise Young on September 23, 2001 at 10:42 PM.]

[giambjj]

Sounds like many of these animal studies confrim the results of what Dr. Kao has done in 500 humans. Dr. Kao has a PhD scientist that is looking into reformulating his Schwann cell solution, so that it better penetrates the spinal cord.

[Wise Young]

I was interested in this article for several reasons. The authors of the article are from Dalhousie University in Halifax. While they are cautious about stating the need for further research and how much work has yet to be done, they are echoing a very common feeling amongst scientists, i.e. that transplantation of cells will be a very important part of repairing the spinal cord. Transplantation therapy has now come into the mainstream. It is also interesting that many of the people on this forum know already that it is being tried in people... Not only is it being done with fetal cells (University of Florida, Karolinska Institute, Moscow, and Novosibirsk) but people are using porcine stem cells (Washington University and Albany Medical Center), Schwann cells (Kao, Cheng), and many others.

Wise.h