Nanotech for Spinal Cord Injury is Promising

Filed in archive Nanomedicine on April 8, 2008

Nanotechnology is improving in leaps and bounds. Yes, including in the department of spinal cord injury.





Spinal cord injury can lead to paralysis, among others!

A spinal cord injury often leads to permanent paralysis and loss of sensation below the site of the injury because the damaged nerve fibers can't regenerate. The nerve fibers or axons have the capacity to grow again, but don't because they're blocked by scar tissue that develops around the injury.

Thanks to Northwestern University researchers, who have developed a new nano-engineered gel that inhibits the formation of scar tissue at the injury site, thereby enabling the severed spinal cord fibers to regenerate and grow.

Hows that? Regeneration and regrowth!

The gel is injected as a liquid into the spinal cord and self -assembles into a scaffold that supports the new nerve fibers as they grow up and down the spinal cord, penetrating the site of the injury.

When the gel was injected into mice with a spinal cord injury, after six weeks the animals had a greatly enhanced ability to use their hind legs and walk.

Findings of the above research have been published in the April 2 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Read more details from Northwestern University.