Doctors in New York have announced new research which used the body’s own nerves to bridge the gap in the spinal cord left by paralysing injuries.
Experimenting on rats, researchers took an abdominal nerve from the spinal column just above an injury and reattached it to the spinal cord below using a protein ‘glue’. Two weeks after the procedure the rats showed some signs of improved movement as the nerve began to grow and formed new connections. Electrical impulses send down the spinal cord caused twitching in the lower limbs, indicating that connections had been made. Other abdominal nerves compensated for the lost connection so there were no ill-effects in the abdominal muscle. Worries are that this nerve may not be able to cope with taking on the more sophisticated role of the spinal cord, and that whilst the position of the spinal cord injury in the experiment suited the use of the abdominal nerve, if the injury was higher or lower on the spine finding a nerve that could be readily ‘sacrificed’ without creating other problems might be difficult.