X-Message-Number: 24783
From: "Basie" <>
Subject: severed spinal cord nerve fibres 
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 20:29:13 -0400

>Professor Raisman's team at the NIMR has demonstrated that it is possible
for severed spinal cord nerve fibres to grow back and restore lost
functions, and has now moved to UCL with a view to transferring the
technology from rats to humans, working with patients at the new Spinal
Repair Unit within UCL.

Professor Raisman was one of the first neuroscientists whose work raised the
real possibility that spinal cord injuries, long considered incurable, could
be repaired. His key discovery was that there is one part of the nervous
system, a region in the nasal cavity concerned with the sense of smell, in
which nerve fibres are in a state of continuous growth throughout adult
life.

Raisman's team transplanted cells from this region into the injured spinal
cord of laboratory rats, and found that the cells had a remarkable capacity
to integrate into the damaged pathways, laying a 'bridge' over the gap in
the nerve fibres caused by injury. <

References will be given on private request

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