Transplants involving immature, stem cell-generated nervous system
"support cells" helped repair damaged spinal cords in rats, researchers
report.

The support cells, called astrocytes, were generated in tissue
culture from stem cell-like cells called glial-restricted precursors.
Researchers at the New York State Center of Research Excellence in
Spinal Cord Injury say transplanting astrocytes led to much better
outcomes than transplanting stem cells alone.

Details about the new method appear in the current issue of the Journal of Biology.

The finding challenges current concepts of how to use stem cells to promote tissue repair, the study authors said.

The transplanted astrocytes promoted the rapid growth of 40 percent
of sensory nerve fibers across cuts made in the spinal cords of adult
rats. The cells also aligned damaged tissue at the injury site and
suppressed the formation of scar tissue.

The researchers also found that neurons in the brain that normally
degenerate if their nerve fibers are severed in the spinal cord were
rescued when their cut nerve fibers interacted with the transplanted
astrocytes.

Rats that received the astrocytes were able to walk within two
weeks, while rats that received undifferentiated precursor cells still
had difficulty walking after four weeks, the research team reported.

The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about spinal cord injuries (www.ninds.nih.gov ).

By Robert Preidt
healthscout.com