
Nerve cells 're-grown' in rats after spinal injury - Libertatea
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23051516
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deletes
Is it just me or are these things always several years away from clinical
trials. (third paragraph)

Key part:

>>The researchers found for the first time that injured nerve cells could re-
grow for "remarkably long distances" (about 2cm).

They said that while the rats did not regain the ability to walk, they did
recover some bladder function.<<

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aroch
> Is it just me or are these things always several years away from clinical
> trials. (third paragraph)

Anything _not_ in clinical trials (or prelims) is always "a few years" trials
due to how the FDA works. 2cm growth in rats is pretty close to the maximal
growth I would expect from this treatment...It accounts for ~30-40% of the
length of a rat spine. From reading the paper [1] it would appear that for
this to be effective in humans it would require, essentially, stitching
several hundreds segments of new growth together

1: Full text for those without journal access:
[https://atc.io/files/10591.full.pdf](https://atc.io/files/10591.full.pdf)

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andrewcooke
work in humans for _what_?

for example: i doubt that MS sufferers need a replacement for the entire
spine. all they need is something that removes and "fixes" the scarring.

rock on, i say. i hope my betaferon keeps me walking til something like this
is available...

~~~
aroch
I doubt we'd ever see full spine replacement ("retraining" might not ever
work) but for say arm / leg nervous dystrophy I can certainly see this being
appealing.

