Regeneration Can Be Achieved After Chronic Spinal Cord Injury

posted on Oct 29 by Stacy in the Disability News, Spinal Cord Injury category

A new study done by scientists at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine has found that central nervous system axons can regenerate in rats even when the treatment is more than a year after the original spinal cord injury.
This is fantastic news for over 10,000 new spinal cord injuries each year and the 250,000 patients already living with the injury. In the journal Neuron, the scientists were able to regenerate the adult spinal cord axons around a cervical (middle neck region) injury. Since treatment began at different time periods, anywhere from six weeks to 15 months after the original injury, it gives scientists hope that regeneration could occur in later stages of the injury.
Lead scientist Mark Tuszynski, MD, PhD who is the professor of neurosciences and director of the Center for Neural Repair at UC San Diego, explained the studies findings:
“Our findings indicate that there is potential for promoting repair of the injured spinal cord even in chronic stages of injury.” “While the regenerating axons grow for relatively short distances, even this degree of growth could be useful. For example, restoration of nerve function even one level below an injury in the neck might improve movement of a wrist or hand.”
Though these studies were focusing on the brain’s ability to sense touch, the scientists hope that they will be able to regenerate axons that control movement. Many spinal cord injury patients would love to restore their sense of touch, but where this development really gives hope is that in the future, patients could improve their mobility, quality of life, and independence by restoring movement as well.

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