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In breakthrough, nerve connections are regenerated after spinal cord injury
University of California - Irvine ^ | August 8, 2010 | Unknown

Posted on 08/08/2010 10:23:36 AM PDT by decimon

Researchers from UCI, UCSD and Harvard deleted a cell growth inhibitor called PTEN

Irvine, Calif. — Researchers for the first time have induced robust regeneration of nerve connections that control voluntary movement after spinal cord injury, showing the potential for new therapeutic approaches to paralysis and other motor function impairments.

In a study on rodents, the UC Irvine, UC San Diego and Harvard University team achieved this breakthrough by turning back the developmental clock in a molecular pathway critical for the growth of corticospinal tract nerve connections.

They did this by deleting an enzyme called PTEN (a phosphatase and tensin homolog), which controls a molecular pathway called mTOR that is a key regulator of cell growth. PTEN activity is low early during development, allowing cell proliferation. PTEN then turns on when growth is completed, inhibiting mTOR and precluding any ability to regenerate.

Trying to find a way to restore early-developmental-stage cell growth in injured tissue, Zhigang He, a senior neurology researcher at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, first showed in a 2008 study that blocking PTEN in mice enabled the regeneration of connections from the eye to the brain after optic nerve damage.

He then partnered with Oswald Steward of UCI and Binhai Zheng of UCSD to see if the same approach could promote nerve regeneration in injured spinal cord sites. Results of their study appear online in Nature Neuroscience.

"Until now, such robust nerve regeneration has been impossible in the spinal cord," said Steward, anatomy & neurobiology professor and director of the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at UCI. "Paralysis and loss of function from spinal cord injury has been considered untreatable, but our discovery points the way toward a potential therapy to induce regeneration of nerve connections following spinal cord injury in people."

According to Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation data, about 2 percent of Americans have some form of paralysis resulting from spinal cord injury, which is due primarily to the interruption of connections between the brain and spinal cord.

An injury the size of a grape can lead to complete loss of function below the level of injury. For example, an injury to the neck can cause paralysis of arms and legs, loss of ability to feel below the shoulders, inability to control the bladder and bowel, loss of sexual function, and secondary health risks including susceptibility to urinary tract infections, pressure sores and blood clots due to an inability to move the legs.

"These devastating consequences occur even though the spinal cord below the level of injury is intact," Steward noted. "All these lost functions could be restored if we could find a way to regenerate the connections that were damaged."

He and his colleagues are now studying whether the PTEN-deletion treatment leads to actual restoration of motor function in mice with spinal cord injury. Further research will explore the optimal timeframe and drug-delivery system for the therapy.

###

Kai Liu, Yi Lu, Andrea Tedeschi, Kevin Kyungsuk Park, Duo Jin, Bin Cai, Bengang Xu and Lauren Connolly of Harvard; Jae Lee of UCSD; and Rafer Willenberg and Ilse Sears-Kraxberger of UCI also contributed to the study, which was supported by the Wings for Life Spinal Cord Research Foundation, the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, the International Spinal Research Trust, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders & Stroke, and a private contribution to the Reeve-Irvine Research Center.

About the Reeve-Irvine Research Center: The mission of the Reeve-Irvine Research Center is to find new treatments for spinal cord injury through the collaborative research and educational efforts of prominent scientists and clinicians both at UCI and around the world. For more information, visit www.reeve.uci.edu.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Led by Chancellor Michael Drake since 2005, UCI is among the most dynamic campuses in the University of California system, with nearly 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 1,100 faculty and 9,000 staff. Orange County's largest employer, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3.9 billion. For more UCI news, visit www.today.uci.edu.

News Radio: UCI maintains on campus an ISDN line for conducting interviews with its faculty and experts. Use of this line is available for a fee to radio news programs/stations that wish to interview UCI faculty and experts. Use of the ISDN line is subject to availability and approval by the university.

Contact: Tom Vasich 949-824-6455 tmvasich@uci.edu

Elizabeth Andrews 617-919-3103 elizabeth.andrews@childrens.harvard.edu

UCI maintains an online directory of faculty available as experts to the media. To access, visit www.today.uci.edu/experts. For UCI breaking news, visit www.zotwire.uci.edu.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science
KEYWORDS: mtor; pten; regenerativemedicine; spinalcord
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To: cycjec; sinanju

I suspect that you failed to understand his comment.
.


41 posted on 08/09/2010 7:23:28 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Obamacare is America's kristallnacht !!)
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To: decimon

” Doing the work Americans won’t do.”

.
Unfortunately, you’ve said a mouthful!

And under O-care, it can only get worse.


42 posted on 08/09/2010 7:26:45 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Obamacare is America's kristallnacht !!)
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To: decimon; neverdem

Somewhere on FR (or perhaps it’s in a file) I read how a dog with a severed spinal cord had it regenerated by an injection of antifreeze (sounds like Dr Mengele’s grandkid went into veterinary research).


43 posted on 08/09/2010 7:28:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others." -- Otto von Bismarck)
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To: cherry
It is true that stereotypes exists for reasons, but your post above is likely going to be avoided en masse.

LoL.

44 posted on 08/09/2010 7:32:33 PM PDT by Radix ("..Democrats are holding a meeting today to decide whether to overturn the results of the election.")
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To: editor-surveyor; sinanju

I think I understood the comment (about possible physiological
other damage) I was attempting to go off on a tangent and
make an allusion I thought would be obvious to FR readers.
Sorry for any confusion


45 posted on 08/10/2010 2:43:47 AM PDT by cycjec
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To: cycjec

No, really he was commenting on the potential for fast growing tumors when the inhibitors are not present.

Such is particularly likely in this case because it is nerve tissue, which is known for its propensity for tumors.
.


46 posted on 08/10/2010 9:25:11 AM PDT by editor-surveyor (Obamacare is America's kristallnacht !!)
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To: editor-surveyor

really, I see that he was. OK?


47 posted on 08/11/2010 6:27:51 AM PDT by cycjec
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To: Smokin' Joe

Thank you for the pings.


48 posted on 08/12/2010 2:52:29 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny ( garden/survival/cooking/storage- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2299939/posts?page=5555)
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To: nw_arizona_granny

You’re welcome, granny!


49 posted on 08/12/2010 3:47:10 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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