Max
04-11-2008, 01:36 PM
Spinal research steps ahead for cure
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A push to co-ordinate research into spinal cord injury may yield better results, writes Bianca Nogrady | April 12, 2008
SUPERMAN was one of the relatively lucky ones. The fall from a horse that crushed actor Christopher Reeve's spinal cord may have robbed him of his ability to walk, move or even breathe without help, but he still had money, and he had support.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5981443,00.jpg George Owen and his wife Barbara are excited about the progress of spinal cord research. Picture: Stuart McEvoy
Unlike so many people incapacitated by spinal cord injury, Reeve was surrounded by a caring family and support, could afford the considerable expense of adapting his home and life to his new circumstances, and was also a powerful, visible campaigner for research into spinal cord injury.
It's a far cry from the majority experience of spinal cord injury victims, most of whom are young men injured in accidents.
"These guys are devastated," says orthpaedic surgeon George Owen. "They can't run, they can't move, they feel their life is finished -- they just hide, families dissolve around them and they go into a second-rate nursing home."
Owen and wife Barbara are co-founders of Step Ahead Australia, formerly the Spinal Cord Society of Australia. After years of running the organisation on a shoestring, Step Ahead last year entered into a three-year agreement with the federal Government, giving the organisation a mandate to co-ordinate research expertise focused on finding a cure.
Step Ahead has also entered into a partnership with the University of Melbourne and the city's St Vincent's Hospital to set up a dedicated spinal cord research laboratory.
There is plenty of Australian expertise to draw on. Australian researchers are investigating the use of human bone marrow stem cells, and the structural matrix of skin and spinal cord, to bridge the gap of damaged tissue.
Spinal cord injury can be caused by trauma, such as a car and sporting accident, or a pathological process such as inflammation, a spinal cord stroke or diseases such as Guillain Barre Syndrome. The common factor all these conditions have is the neurological consequences.
"It leads to various degrees of spinal cord damage, but the worst is complete disruption of nerve fibres that come from the brain making the muscles work and also from skin, bladder and so on up to the brain," says Owen.
This can mean complete loss of motor control and sensory input from the rest of the body, leaving a person paralysed downwards from the point of the injury.
The Owens know full well the damage done by the condition. At 14, their son Sam broke his neck in their swimming pool.
"It was devastating because I was very familiar with it," says Barbara Owen, who had worked as a nursing sister at The Austin in Melbourne. "I couldn't believe that I would have this injury in our backyard."
In desperation over the lack of support for patients with spinal cord injury, and the perceived apathy of the medical community, the Owens took matters into their own hands. "When George and I started, it was ourselves who funded it, then Lions picked us up in the twilight zone, when we were not big enough to be taken notice of but we were getting too big for George and I to fund," Barbara says.
That allowed their efforts to attract the attention of the federal Government.
One of the researchers associated with Step Ahead is Giles Plant, a leading expert in the field of spinal cord injury and head of the Reds Spinal Cord Injury laboratory at the University of Western Australia. He and his colleagues are investigating a double-barrelled approach to spinal cord repair that uses stem cells to rebuild nerve connections, and also tries to reduce the extent of the initial damage and scarring.
Stem cells are the hot favourite to achieve significant gains in spinal cord repair. Before his death in October 2004 -- nearly 10 years after the horse-riding accident that confined him to a wheelchair -- Christopher Reeve campaigned heavily in favour of stem cell research.
Unlike the more controversial embryonic stem cells, Plant is investigating
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23519011-23289,00.html
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A push to co-ordinate research into spinal cord injury may yield better results, writes Bianca Nogrady | April 12, 2008
SUPERMAN was one of the relatively lucky ones. The fall from a horse that crushed actor Christopher Reeve's spinal cord may have robbed him of his ability to walk, move or even breathe without help, but he still had money, and he had support.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,5981443,00.jpg George Owen and his wife Barbara are excited about the progress of spinal cord research. Picture: Stuart McEvoy
Unlike so many people incapacitated by spinal cord injury, Reeve was surrounded by a caring family and support, could afford the considerable expense of adapting his home and life to his new circumstances, and was also a powerful, visible campaigner for research into spinal cord injury.
It's a far cry from the majority experience of spinal cord injury victims, most of whom are young men injured in accidents.
"These guys are devastated," says orthpaedic surgeon George Owen. "They can't run, they can't move, they feel their life is finished -- they just hide, families dissolve around them and they go into a second-rate nursing home."
Owen and wife Barbara are co-founders of Step Ahead Australia, formerly the Spinal Cord Society of Australia. After years of running the organisation on a shoestring, Step Ahead last year entered into a three-year agreement with the federal Government, giving the organisation a mandate to co-ordinate research expertise focused on finding a cure.
Step Ahead has also entered into a partnership with the University of Melbourne and the city's St Vincent's Hospital to set up a dedicated spinal cord research laboratory.
There is plenty of Australian expertise to draw on. Australian researchers are investigating the use of human bone marrow stem cells, and the structural matrix of skin and spinal cord, to bridge the gap of damaged tissue.
Spinal cord injury can be caused by trauma, such as a car and sporting accident, or a pathological process such as inflammation, a spinal cord stroke or diseases such as Guillain Barre Syndrome. The common factor all these conditions have is the neurological consequences.
"It leads to various degrees of spinal cord damage, but the worst is complete disruption of nerve fibres that come from the brain making the muscles work and also from skin, bladder and so on up to the brain," says Owen.
This can mean complete loss of motor control and sensory input from the rest of the body, leaving a person paralysed downwards from the point of the injury.
The Owens know full well the damage done by the condition. At 14, their son Sam broke his neck in their swimming pool.
"It was devastating because I was very familiar with it," says Barbara Owen, who had worked as a nursing sister at The Austin in Melbourne. "I couldn't believe that I would have this injury in our backyard."
In desperation over the lack of support for patients with spinal cord injury, and the perceived apathy of the medical community, the Owens took matters into their own hands. "When George and I started, it was ourselves who funded it, then Lions picked us up in the twilight zone, when we were not big enough to be taken notice of but we were getting too big for George and I to fund," Barbara says.
That allowed their efforts to attract the attention of the federal Government.
One of the researchers associated with Step Ahead is Giles Plant, a leading expert in the field of spinal cord injury and head of the Reds Spinal Cord Injury laboratory at the University of Western Australia. He and his colleagues are investigating a double-barrelled approach to spinal cord repair that uses stem cells to rebuild nerve connections, and also tries to reduce the extent of the initial damage and scarring.
Stem cells are the hot favourite to achieve significant gains in spinal cord repair. Before his death in October 2004 -- nearly 10 years after the horse-riding accident that confined him to a wheelchair -- Christopher Reeve campaigned heavily in favour of stem cell research.
Unlike the more controversial embryonic stem cells, Plant is investigating
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23519011-23289,00.html