Spinal in Biological News

ISU researchers find possible treatment for spinal muscular atrophy

... AMES, Iowa - spinal Muscular Atrophy is the second-leading cause of ... College of Veterinary Medicine, would like to see spinal Muscular Atrophy lose its high ranking and even slide off the list altogether. Most spinal Muscular Atrophy sufferers -- more than 95 ...

Clinical trial shows quadriplegics can operate powered wheelchair with tongue drive system

... can be operated by individuals with high-level spinal cord injuries, according to the results of a ... and quite simple for individuals with high-level spinal cord injuries to use," said Maysam Ghovanloo, an ... with tetraplegia, as a result of high-level spinal cord injuries (cervical vertebrae C3-C5), to ...

Brain-computer interface, developed at Brown, begins new clinical trial

... ultimate goal of which is to help patients with spinal cord injury, stroke, muscular dystrophy, ... in engineering, may help people with brain and spinal cord injuries and diseases," Donoghue said. ... a computer but also to assist people with ALS, spinal cord injury and brainstem stroke to control their ...

Identification of a key molecular pathway required for brain neural circuit formation

... has made a discovery which could help treat spinal cord injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. ... Shh acted as an axonal attractant for brain and spinal cord neurons. "How exactly Shh elicited this ... It paves the way to new therapies to treat spinal cord injuries, neurodevelopmental disorders, and ...

Jefferson researcher awarded Landenberger Foundation grant for ALS research

... that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The ...

Multiple route bone marrow stem cell injections show promise to treat spinal cord injury

... stem cells (autologous BMCs) directly into the spinal column using multiple routes can be an effective treatment for spinal cord injury (SCI) that returns some quality of ... to whom they administered BMCs directly into the spinal ...

UCLA stem cells scientists make electrically active motor neurons from iPS cells

... Motor neurons receive signals from the brain and spinal cord and regulate muscle contraction. The ... neurons are lost in many conditions, including spinal cord injury, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and spinal Muscular Atrophy. "A primary objective of ...

Cytori reports benefit of adipose-derived regenerative cells in spinal disc model

... potential of a patient's own ADRCs to repair the spinal disc. While this study relied upon the ... for more than 300,000 patients undergoing spinal surgery annually. 12 months following ... ADRCs may contribute to the regeneration of the spinal disc and form a healthier, more natural ...

Intraspinal implant of mesenchymal stem cells may not heal the demyelinated spinal cord

... sheath surrounding the nerve fibers of the spinal cord. Therapeutic hope for curing multiple ... stem cell transplants could help remyelinate the spinal cord. Accordingly, researchers from the ... marrow, i.e. allogenic) into the demyelinated rat spinal cord would be therapeutic and remyelinate the ...

Swamping bad cells with good in ALS animal models helps sustain breathing

... cells with healthy ones in targeted parts of the spinal cord preserves limb strength and breathing and ... area for the added cells - parts of the cervical spinal cord that control the diaphragm muscles largely ... overall to specific sites in the cervical spinal cord of each model rat in early stages of ....

Response to immune protein determines pathology of multiple sclerosis

... by invading T cells dictates whether it's the spinal cord or cerebellum that comes under fire. The ... MS patients, the disease primarily affects the spinal cord and the white matter of the brain. But a ... cerebellum and brain stem inflammation, but their spinal cords are spared. When IFNg receptors were left ...

The pepperoni pizza hypothesis

... wires and plug into the same region of the spinal cord near the tailbone. People with ... are constantly transmitting pain signals to the spinal cord: a steady beep, beep, beep. But when the ... also send a pain signal to the same area on the spinal chord. This new signal is the tipping point. It ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Aug. 6, 2008

... contaminated with tissue from a cow's brain or spinal cord during slaughter an advance in protecting ... and colleagues point out that removal of brain, spinal and other central nervous tissue after slaughter ... indicator for the presence of brain and spinal tissue in bovine carcasses and meat cuts. "Small ...

James Briscoe awarded 2008 EMBO Gold Medal

... and subtype identity of neurons in the ventral spinal cord. "We want to understand how neurons - nerve cells are arranged in the spinal cord," explains the EMBO Gold Medal winner for ... that is secreted from a particular region in the spinal cord." Briscoe and his group discovered a ...

Brown to host conference on advances in neurotechnology

... (ear) implants and retinal (eye) prosthetics; spinal cord injuries; deep brain stimulation; and ... Sciences. Ling's research focuses on brain and spinal cord injuries, particularly those relevant to the ... for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) spinal Injuries Andrew Cappuccino, M.D., orthopedic ...

Promising new nanotechnology for spinal cord injury

... CHICAGO -- A spinal cord injury often leads to permanent paralysis ... tissue at the injury site and enables the severed spinal cord fibers to regenerate and grow. The gel is injected as a liquid into the spinal cord and self -assembles into a scaffold that ...

Trainor Lab characterizes gene essential for prenatal development of nervous system

... and cell-fate determination in the spinal cord by coupling progression through the cycle of ... transcription factor in regulating key aspects of spinal cord neurogenesis, said Angelo Iulianella, Ph.D., ... it possible to extend these findings not only to spinal cord development, but also to the mammalian ...

Mutation may cause inherited neuropathy

... processes that are located outside the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms include pain in the hands and ... receptors in the extremities to the brain and spinal cord, as well as motor nerves that relay signals from the brain and spinal cord to the limbs and internal organs are ...

Mayo Clinic study: Ossur's collars superior in immobilization and reduction of pressure

... out to minimize the potential of secondary spinal cord injury. Although cervical injury is detected ... injury necessitates the initiation of spinal precautions in all such patients before cervical spine clearance. Failure to achieve early spinal clearance predisposes the patient to increased ...

Salk scientists identify key nerve navigation pathway

... neurons the nascent cells that extend from the spinal cord and must find their way down the length of ... mutants, growing neurons can be seen leaving the spinal cord normally but then appear to lose direction. ... entwined in a spiral, forming coils outside the spinal cord. They appear to become lost in a traffic ...

Researchers take first steps towards spinal cord reconstruction following injury

... towards the regeneration of nerve cells following spinal cord injury, using the bodys own stem cells. ... identifies key elements in the bodys reaction to spinal injury, critical information that could lead to ... irreversible nerve damage in the injured spinal cord. Very little is known about why, unlike ...

Jefferson urologists studying regenerated neo-bladder to help spinal cord injury patients

... own cells can improve bladder function for adult spinal cord injury patients. Jefferson is only one of ... patient must be 18 to 65 years of age, have had a spinal cord injury for more than a year and diagnosed ... for patients with bladder control problems due to spinal cord injury, the possibilities for expansion into ...

NIH awards UC $9 million grant to improve patient point-of-care technologies

... a general practitioner. If its meningitis, then a spinal tap is called for. However, if its an acute ... effective after 12 hours following the event. A spinal tap would be called for but the information is ... blood and urine samples are routinely drawn. spinal fluid tests are rarely used because of the ...

Researchers design first model motor nerve system that's insulated and organized like the human body

... cells are located in the body. In the central nervous system (CNS), the spinal cord and brain are surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid that contains only ... and unmyelinated nerves to reveal how nerves malfunction as well as for spinal cord injury studies. "Being able to study these fully developed structures ...

The secret to chimp strength

... that, relative to body mass, chimps have much less grey matter in their spinal cords than humans have. spinal grey matter contains large numbers of motor neuronsnerves cells that ...

A little java makes it easier to jive, researcher says

... initially was focused on exploring possible links between caffeine intake, spinal reflexes and physical activity. Seven years later, with several studies ... "caffeine works on the adenosine neuromodulatory system in the brain and spinal cord, and this system is heavily involved in nociception and pain ...

Therapeutic hypothermia is promising strategy to minimize tissue damage

... of the benefits of cooling strategies to protect the brain and spinal cord after traumatic injury has led to a wealth of cutting edge research, ... arrest, stroke and subarachnoid hemorrhage, traumatic brain (TBI) and spinal cord injury, and pediatric TBI and asphyxia. Mackensen et al. focus on ...

Low levels of vitamin B12 may increase risk for neural tube defects

... Neural tube defects are a class of birth defects affecting the brain and spinal cord. One type, spina bifida, can cause partial paralysis. Another type, ... Dr. Mills explained that critical events in the formation of the brain and spinal column occur very early in pregnancyin the first 28 days after ...

Motor nerve targeting to limb muscles is controlled by ephrin proteins

... proteins present in the developing limb control nerve targeting from the spinal cord to the muscles of the limb. This discovery, co-authored by scientists ... Dr. Kania, "we study a simple system in which nerves extend from the spinal cord to the limb to connect to either flexor muscles (i.e. biceps arm ...

Patient-derived induced stem cells retain disease traits

... the same type lost in patients with the devastating neurological disease spinal muscular atrophy confirmed that the University of Wisconsin-Madison stem ... stem cells by genetically reprogramming skin cells from a patient with spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA. In this inherited disease, the most common ...

Transplanted fat cells restore function after spinal cord injury

... neurotrophic factors contributed to promotion of functional recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI)," said Ohta. "Transplanting DFAT cells into SCI rats ... stem cells from a patient's own fat that can help repair injury to the spinal cord," said Paul R. Sanberg, PhD, DSc, at the University of South Florida ...

JHU chemists devise self-assembling 'organic wires'

... patient's body can't discern the difference to devices that bypass injured spinal cords to restore movement to paralyzed limbs, the possibilities presented ... communication as a prelude to re-engineering neural networks or damaged spinal cords? These are the kinds of questions we are looking forward to being ...

Salk scientist Fred H. Gage to receive the Keio Medical Science Prize

... be induced to become mature functioning nerve cells in the adult brain and spinal cord. Dr. Gage's lab also showed that environmental enrichment and ... mechanisms that may be harnessed to repair the aged and damaged brain and spinal cord. Kyoto University professor Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi was also named a ...

NIH EUREKA grant awarded to University of Miami scientist

... Health (NIH), to develop a technique that can lead to a new treatment for spinal cord injury. Dr. Chiba, a professor at the University of Miami's ... medicine," said Chiba. "A Holy Grail of regenerative neuromedicine is spinal cord repair," he said. "It would be rash to predict that our project will ...

Alcohol consumption can cause too much cell death, fetal abnormalities

... cells are then left to properly form the face and possibly the brain and spinal cord. "It's well known that when you drink, you get a buzz. But a ... developing at the same time as neural tube cells that form the brain and spinal cord. Consequently, the telltale facial abnormalities in a newborn also ...

$3.2M for Rutgers to apply biology, engineering, physical sciences toward stem cells

... the grant will strengthen our efforts to find cures for brain and spinal cord injuries and disorders," said Dr. Wise Young, Richard H. Shindell Professor of Neuroscience at Rutgers. Young, a world leader in spinal cord injury and treatment and an outspoken advocate for stem cell ...

Multiple Sclerosis: new MRI contrast medium enables early diagnosis in animal model

... The scientists from Heidelberg and Wrzburg examined brains and spinal cords of animals at different stages of the disease with the new contrast ... was clearly superior to conventional contrast media, especially for the spinal cord or optical nerve, nerve regions that are particularly difficult to ...

Treating chronic pain, migraine & muscle spasticity through inhibition of neurotransmitter glutamate

... Dr. Tuchman will present information about glutamate receptors in the spinal cord as a target for muscle spasticity. He has served as Vice Chairman of ... as neuropathic pain as well as muscle spasticity and rigidity secondary to spinal cord trauma, stroke and multiple sclerosis. ...

Names of inaugural Kavli Prize winners revealed

... the development and functioning of the networks of cells in the brain and spinal cord. Pasko Rakic, of the Yale University School of Medicine, in the ... the Karolinska Institute in Sweden showed how neural circuits in mammalian spinal cords generate motor commands for rhythmic movements such as locomotion. ...

Stowers Institute researchers identify gene linked to vertebral defects in patient populations

... with colleagues from around the world to show that genes known to cause spinal mutations in chick and mouse model systems also play an important role in ... on to future generations. After working for many years to study spinal formation in chicks and mice, it is rewarding to expand our investigation ...