Researchers Unveil Spinal Cord Injury Breakthrough Sourced from Mice Hair
Last week, a group of Italian and American researchers unveiled a dramatic discovery at a conference in Australia. The group had used stem cells from mice hair follicles in order to treat spinal cord injury in mice. The results were very encouraging. Mice with spinal cord injury were able to regain movement after being given the stem cell transplants.
Researchers presented a video at the conference which showed a mouse with spinal cord injury regaining movement in its limbs, after receiving stem cell transplants from its hair follicles. The researchers are hailing this as a major breakthrough in the treatment of spinal cord injury using stem cell therapy.
There is hope that such therapy may also be used in humans with great success. The mice were treated with similar stem cells that were found in human hair follicles, and even these cell therapies were found to be equally beneficial. Researchers believe that there is enough reason to hope this stem cell therapy will benefit humans too.
Approximately, a quarter million Americans live with spinal cord injury. These occur most often in auto, truck and motorcycle accidents. In fact, auto accidents are the number one cause of spinal cord injury in the United States. However, these can also occur during slip and fall accidents, or as a result of violent assaults. Treatment for spinal cord injury has been painstakingly slow to develop, although advances in stem cell therapies hold much promise for Indiana personal injury lawyers.
Spinal cord injuries often leave their victims with one of two conditions - paraplegia and quadriplegia. A paraplegic will only have control over the lower limbs of his body, whereas a quadriplegic will have loss of movement in both upper and lower limbs. For many of these persons, the search for an effective and long-term cure, is elusive. The only hope comes from the use of stem cell transplants to rejuvenate and repair damaged nerve and tissue.
