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UCI study is first to show reversal of long-term hind-limb paralysisA UC Irvine study is the first to demonstrate that human neural stem cells can restore mobility in cases of chronic spinal cord injury, suggesting the prospect of treating a much broader population of patients. Previous breakthrough stem cell studies have focused on the acute, or early, phase of spinal cord injury, a period of up to a few weeks after the initial trauma when drug treatments can lead to some functional recovery. The UCI study, led by Aileen Anderson and Brian Cummings of the Sue and Bill Gross Stem...

The signaling molecule CD95L, known as "death messenger," causes an inflammatory process in injured tissue after spinal cord injuries and prevents its healing. This discovery was published by scientists of the German Cancer Research Center. In mice, the researchers found out that if they switch off CD95L, the injured spinal cord heals and the animals regain better ability to move. Therefore, substances which block the death messenger might offer a new approach in the treatment of severe inflammatory diseases. A couple of years ago, Dr. Ana Martin-Villalba of the German Cancer Research Center already succeeded in reducing the effects of...

AP Science Writer A U.S. biotech company says it plans to start this summer the world's first study of a treatment based on human embryonic stem cells - a long-awaited project aimed at spinal cord injury. --snip-- Each patient will receive a low dose of anti-rejection drugs for about two months, because after that time the medications shouldn't be needed, Okarma said. The study will follow each patient for at least a year...

A study published in the current issue of CELL TRANSPLANTATION (Vol.17, No. 8) suggests that mature adipocytes - fat cells - could become a source for cell replacement therapy to treat central nervous system disorders. According to the study's lead researcher, Dr. Yuki Ohta of the Institute of Medical Science, St. Mariana University School of Medicine, Kawasaki, Japan, adipose-derived stem/stromal cells have in the past been shown to differentiate into neuronal cells in an in vitro setting. In their study, for the first time fat cells have been shown to successfully differentiate into neuronal cells in in vivo tests. The...

 LISBON, July 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A team of researchers from Hospital de Egas, Lisbon, Portugal and Wayne State University Medical School in Michigan, USA, have shown that stem cells taken from the olfactory mucosa can be used successfully to treat spinal cord injuries, even years after the injury occurred. A report published by the American Paraplegia Society says that seven patients, ranging in age from 18 to 32 years, who suffered severe spinal cord injuries as much as six and half years before, were treated with stem-like progenitor and ensheathing cells derived from the olfactory mucosa. The cells were cultivated and...

Would you try an untested medical treatment on the off-chance it could let you walk again? Canadian Hanna Czarnecki has traveled all the way to Russia for stem cell injections at a private clinic specializing in spinal cord injuries. Czarnecki is hopeful pioneering technologies that are less strongly regulated than in Western countries can bring her results she wouldn't be able to achieve here in Canada. Despite concerns from the medical community about such procedures, she says the choice is hers to make. Two years ago, near Woodstock, Ont., Czarnecki was paralyzed from the waist down. Now, she is hoping...

Adult Stem Cell Research Treats Spinal Cord Injury Patient   LifeNews.com Note: Award winning author Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture. An attorney, Smith's new book Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World was published last year. I have known about this for some time, but because I didn't want to be guilty of the same hyping that is so often engaged in by some therapeutic cloning proponents, I waited until it was published in a peer reviewed journal.Now it has been and the...

Click Picture for Video image: Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc. Brain PowerFor the first time, a paralyzed man with an experimental brain implant bypassed his damaged spine to manipulate an artificial limb and a computer program using only his imagination. This ScienCentral News video has more.Movin' on His MindAmericans celebrate their freedom every year on the same day that Matthew Nagle lost almost all of his. As Fourth of July fireworks flashed over Wessagussett Beach in Weymouth, Massachusetts nearly four years ago, Nagle found himself in a sea of flying fists and within minutes, Nicholas Cirignano, a man with a...

A report earlier this week that South Korean researchers have used stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood to help a woman with a damaged spinal cord walk again is bound to re-ignite the battle over human embryonic stem cell research. The researchers say they harvested embryonic stem cells from blood taken from umbilical cords and injected them into the spine of a 37-year-old woman named Hwang Mi-soon. Ms. Hwang, who has been chair-bound for nearly two decades, took several steps using a walker at a press conference and declared her progress a “miracle.” And a miracle it is: Cord...

Stacy Gamery would do anything to reverse 60 seconds of her life. If only she could rewind the clock to the minute she gave in to her 3-year-old's desire to sit in the front seat of a car. This time, she wouldn't deviate from her policy of insisting that Carmen get in a car seat in the back, just as she had on all the other trips they'd made since she was born, no matter how special the occasion. If she had done this, she said, she wouldn't have found herself on the evening of July 7 pleading with onlookers...