Are you sitting down? This is going to blow you away. Because it will mean that paralyzed folks now have REAL hope of walking again.
Dr. George Bittner led a multi-discipline team (Spaeth, Fan, Zuzek, Wilcott, Gonzalez-Lima, Shallert) from the University of Texas (along with Keating and Winograd at Harvard and Thayer at Vanderbilt) who published their results in the Journal of Neuroscience Research; the paper describes their experiments enabling paralyzed rats to walk within days of their developed recovery procedure. In four weeks, 98% had regained more than 60% of their leg functionality!
We knew that should a nerve get severed, there is a short window when one can connect the two severed ends, which then allows the body’s repair mechanism (for plasma-lemmal damage) to work its wonders. Wait a little too long (There’s the rub- how long? Certainly 2 days or so seems about right), and vesicles (spherical elements) form in the nerve ends, thereby sealing the ends and precluding their reconnection. But, Bittner’s research had uncovered another vital secret- deplete the calcium from the region of injury and those vesicles don’t form.
As such, they decided to squirt a (hypotonic, calcium-free) saline solution, laced with methylene blue (acting as an anti-oxidant), into the region of injury. This injection suspends the formation of vesicles, as described above, since the calcium level has now been radically reduced in the region. Then, surgeons have the time to pull the (cut or smashed) nerve ends together and provide another injection- this time comprised of PEG (polyethylene glycol), which serves to draw the water out from the membranes that surround the two nearly-contiguous, nerve endings. This affords the ability of the fatty tissues covering the nerves to merge together. (See diagram below.) The final step in the process- injecting an isotonic, calcium-laden saline solution into the region- promotes the vesicle formation, leading to the merger of the two nearly contiguous nerve endings.
So far, these experiments have proven successful in rats- with the sciatic nerve (peripheral nervous system component). The damage was effected via cutting or crushing the nerves. The next steps sre to see if this can work in the far-less controlled emergency room environment and on other nerves, especially those of the central nervous system structures.
Here’s a link to let you see the rats in motion for yourselves…
[jwplayer mediaid=”5762″]
I have nothing to say, but I shared this…sooooooooo exciting!!
Makes you want to jump up and down, huh, Lisa?
Totally cool. This could mean so much for those with serious injury.
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Absolutely, Shawn. And, no need (at least for this portion of the nervous system) to rely upon the political acceptance of stem cells!
This is absolutely amazing! Let’s hope that they get the funding and backing to take this to the next level.
James Debono recently posted..How to write Blogs like a Superhero and Not a Villain!
One thing you can be pretty certain about. MIT and Harvard have pretty good funding sources. 🙂
Very exciting, Roy! Thanks for posting.
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Yes, I was excited by this news as well. I have been following the stem cell, biomechanical engineering, and other essays at solving this problem for more than three decades!
This is amazing news. I have known people who have been in accidents and have to spend the rest of their lives in a wheelchair. This research will bring hope to many. I pray that the day will soon arrive when it will be a common procedure to help those in desperate need.
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I echo your sentiment, Janette!
My grandma passed away after over two years of paralysis of her left side. I saw her suffer every single day and being restricted to the bed was probably the worst thing ever for a woman who loved to be on the move. In the end I think she just gave up. She was the only of my grandparents I ever got to meet. No one hates paralysis as much as I do.
I hope this is the next big thing.
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Me, too, Hajra. Let’s hope it works and we find out soon.
Roy
Imagine all the people whose quality of life this will help in the future. This is truly exciting news, Roy. Thanks for sharing.
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Absolutely! Ann, we can only hope it works- and we find out soon!
What an exciting and interesting study. I hope that the technique is also successful in humans. It sounds very promising.
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I hope it works, too, Kristen. At the very least, it may lead to other approaches to stopping the normal repair mechanisms before we (our human bodies) can take advantage of them.
That is amazing Roy. When will we hear this on the news so everyone can jump up and down! Can you imagine what this will do for so many people and their families? I am always in awe of science and the people that devote their time, energy and knowledge. Thank god for these folks!! Thank you for sharing this awesome information.
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Lynn:
I have given up figuring out what and why certain news is picked up by the media. This article was less technical than most; the research was done in Massachusetts- and you’re right, nothing much in the “popular” media has been seen.
I guess they are all waiting for the next series of test results???
Exciting news, Wow thanks for posting. I will be sharing.
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Glad you liked the post, Jan. Thanks for visiting!
Fascinating. I’m not sure the rats would think it so however. Still, I wonder what the next level will lead to. Truly amazing what humans are capable of figuring out.
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Actually, I’m not sure I care what the rats think, Bonnie. We need animal models and testing- folks would never approve us doing this with humans first.
Roy
My ‘adapted’ daughter ( I helped raise her while mom was recovering from illness) crashed on her bike when she was 6. She wasn’t wearing a helmet & they had to fly her to shock trauma. Thankfully, there was no permanent damage. That was something that could’ve been prevented, but so much out there is beyond our control… very exciting news indeed. Thanks for sharing!
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Jenny, I am so glad your “adapted” daughter is fine.
And, thrilled you liked this post.
It really blows me away. It is good to know about this miraculous one and I know for sure many individual will love to know about this.
I was blown away, too, Danyelle.
Now, let’s hope this works for humans, too!
Wow, I can only hope that this research is perfected and used in my lifetime. I’ve read the comments here too and like so many of them, I know people whose lives would be far changed by being able to walk again! Hopefully, it can be evident WAY sooner than later.
~Kesha
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I’m with you, Kesha!
This may be that first step in helping many of mankind actually step again.
Roy
Very rapidly this site will be famous among all blog people, due to it’s good posts
I’m curious to find out what blog platform you’re using? I’m having some minor security problems with my latest blog and I’d like to find something more secure. Do you have any recommendations?
Natalie:
If you look at the address of the blog (as it appears above), you will see it says “WordPress”. That’s my engine!
Hi this is somewhat of off topic but I was wondering if
blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML.
I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding experience so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Most bloggers use WYSIWYG systems, Roslyn. That’s why there are so many of them- because they are easy to start up.
Roy
It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d definitely donate to this brilliant blog! I suppose for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to brand new updates and will share this blog with my Facebook group. Chat soon!
Why, thank you so much!
Roy