Posted on Aug. 5: New hope for paralysed

McMaster University researchers have passed a significant milestone along the long road to unravelling the mystery of how to get patients with spinal cord injuries walking again.

They discovered implanting cells — called enteric glia — from the intestine into the spinal cord promotes the outgrowth of nerve fibres through the spinal cord.

What is exciting about the McMaster research is the regenerated nerve fibres not only restore function but make appropriate connections.

“We have shown now that we've got nerves that not only regenerate but they make the right functional connections with nerves, and those are in the right place,” said neurologist Michel Rathbone.

This finding is very, very important, he said, otherwise someone — in the future — might move their arm when they only wanted to move a finger.

Rathbone, Eva Werstiuk and Shucui Jiang led the research group whose work is reported today in the scientific journals Experimental Neurology and NeuroReport.

While the current work is in animals, Rathbone estimates it will be two years before clinical trials begin in humans.

Ray Wickson, who is paralysed and director of research for the Canadian Spinal Research Organization (CSRO), calls the findings by the McMaster group a “milestone” in spinal injury cure research.

“This is early days,” he said. “This is the beginning. This is the animal model and it is showing the concept has merit. It is obvious to anyone who is a spinal cord-injured individual that you have to sit up and take a look at this.”

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