Scientists Coax Nerve Fibers To Regrow 76
Malthooslie writes to tell us ScienceDaily is reporting that scientists have managed to regrow nerve fibers after a spinal injury. Using an enzyme called sialidase, isolated from bacteria, researchers were able to stimulate nerve fiber growth in rats. From the article: "While surgeons can sometimes reattach the yanked nerves to the spinal cord, this treatment is not as effective as physicians or patients would like. This is in part because nerves in the brain and spinal cord, unlike those in the rest of the body, fail to grow new nerve fibers. Nerves in the brain and spinal cord are surrounded by signals from other cells in the injured area that stop them from growing."
Help my memory (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Help my memory (Score:1)
Re:Help my memory (Score:4, Funny)
No, they're just really bad at calling lawyers if something goes wrong.
yeah (Score:4, Funny)
OW!! (Score:1)
Re:OW!! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:OW!! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Help my memory (Score:2)
Its probably all the same experiment being reported multiple times. I know for a fact its the third time its been duped on slashdot. Triped?
Re:Help my memory (Score:2)
I know for a fact its the third time its been duped on slashdot. Triped?
Oh, Bravo! You've managed to loosely equate repeated slashdot stories with shit!
Brilliant!
Headline (Score:5, Funny)
Let me be the first to say.,.. (Score:2)
Yes but (Score:2)
Re:Headline (Score:1)
They coaxed? (Score:4, Funny)
Honestly the nerve... flattery gets you nowhere.
Re:They coaxed? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:They coaxed? (Score:1)
Re:They coaxed? (Score:1)
Re:They coaxed? (Score:1)
7 entries found for humor.
humor ( P ) Pronunciation Key (hymr)
n.
The quality that makes something laughable or amusing; funniness: could not see the humor of the situation.
That which is intended to induce laughter or amusement: a writer skilled at crafting humor.
The ability to perceive, enjoy, or express what is amusing, comical, incongruous, or absurd. See Synonyms at wit1.
One of the four fluids of the body, blood, phlegm, choler, and black bile, whose relative proportions were thought in ancient and m
1 entry found for sense of humour. (Score:1)
Re:They coaxed? (Score:1)
1a : something said or done to provoke laughter; especially : a brief oral narrative with a climactic humorous twist b (1) : the humorous or ridiculous element in something (2) : an instance of jesting : KIDDING <can't take a joke> c : PRACTICAL JOKE d : LAUGHINGSTOCK 2 : something not to be taken seriously : a trifling matter <consider his skiing a joke -- Harold Callender> -- often used in negative constructions
Re:They coaxed? (Score:2)
"... please cable, just grow a little bit more, you've almost made it to the router, just
stretch out those coils a little bit more, that's it, a few more inches, I know you can do it. I don't want to have to hang you from the roof and stretch you out..."
Re:They coaxed? (Score:2)
Me, myself... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Me, myself... (Score:1)
Re:It's sad (Score:2)
Re:It's sad (Score:1)
I blame those that accepted the submission. They have a job, they really should look into doing it once in a awhile.
Re:It's sad (Score:1)
Re:It's sad (Score:1)
Who cares what the headline is, there's an article accompanying it isn't there?
sheesh
Can it help Multiple Sclerosis? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Can it help Multiple Sclerosis? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Can it help Multiple Sclerosis? (Score:5, Interesting)
For patients of both the relapsing-remitting and progressive form of MS, a treatment that would reduce the retained damage would be very helpful.
Patients who can, depending on the degree of the MS, suffer greatly in terms of reduced motor functions and control, for instance, would welcome a treatment that restores their motor skills.
However, causing the growth of nerves where there were none is, to me, significantly different from repairing existing nerves and the mechanisms to do that seem to be quite different.
The Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] article on this describes the damage repair mechanism as follows: This indicates a completely different mechanism as in this research and I find it doubtful that there would be synergy effects. But I am not a doctor. Unfortunately.
Re:Can it help Multiple Sclerosis? (Score:2)
The thing is, medically, I don't think that the sudden onset of "nerve ending" (re)growth taking place in the brain is the answer. What we want is to discover a chemical means of telling the body to stop attacking the myelin sheaths between the nerves as if they were a virus. Meaning that this research has
Re:Can it help Multiple Sclerosis? (Score:2)
Until then, I continue to wear my red wristband, labeled "Hope", with the http://nationalmssociety.org/ [nationalmssociety.org] URL.
Re:Can it help Multiple Sclerosis? (Score:1)
Scientists coax /. stories forward in time (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Scientists coax /. stories forward in time (Score:1, Informative)
Keep your paralyzed rats straight here
Man with Two Brains (Score:3, Interesting)
How long before I can backup my mind in a spare brain, and go back to partying like when I was a kid? When nerves didn't regenerate, and I was too dumb to care?
Re:Man with Two Brains (Score:2)
Re:Man with Two Brains (Score:2)
I watch medicine's continuing developments in letting the body heal itself while playing a champion support role. Ben Franklin said "god does the healing, the doctor collects the reward".
Yawn (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Yawn (Score:1)
The problem is that penis enlargement pills will never work, but the money hunt is similar.
Spinal cord treatment is very risky research on humans.
Rats have better regenerative abilites, stronger immunesystem and shorter lifespans; so doing clinic tests on human almost always fails completely.
I wish that they did some proper clinical tests on humans instead trying to get more funds by publishing things like this, time and time again.
Simil
Why not artificial nerve fiber ? (Score:2)
Like wire or something that conducts electricity.
Re:Why not artificial nerve fiber ? (Score:2, Informative)
(My biology is a little rusty, so maybe someone can better explain it.)
Re:Why not artificial nerve fiber ? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Why not artificial nerve fiber ? (Score:2)
Re:Why not artificial nerve fiber ? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, it's electro-chemical. Signal transmission along the axon works by having a depolarized zone travelling down the axon. The depolarization happens electrically, this is why having a myelin sheath around the axon will speed up signal transmission (the depolarization can "skip" the parts of the axon covered by the myelin sheath).
Signal transmission between two nerve cells is a chemical process that happens in the synaptic cleft, involving neurotransmitters and enzymes to break them down.
What matters here is the synapses. When these are ripped out of place by medical trauma, it's damn hard to fit them back together again - in the rest of the body, it works, but in the spinal cord there's other cells present that effectively inhibit this healing.
Actually, no, the synapses are not the biggest problem. They're simply a connection between two cells that can be reformed fairly easily (nerve cells have a natural tendency to try to establish meaningful connections with other nerve cells). The big problem is having nerve fibers that are cut - the usual healing process of the body consists of disposing of damaged cells and replacing them with newly formed cells. This obviously doesn't work with neurons as they usually cannot be re-grown. Therefore, if a neuron is damaged, it has to be _repaired_, not _replaced_, and this is the hard part.
(Nitpick) (Score:2)
Addition - there are also electric synapses that transmit the signal electrically. However, they lack all the ways to influence/modulate signal transmission in the synaptic cleft, and therefore are rare compared to the chemical synapses.
Re:Why not artificial nerve fiber ? (Score:2)
I appreciate the clarification on the dispose/replace, though.
Re:Why not artificial nerve fiber ? (Score:2)
Yes, there actually is a loop, albeit a tiny one - between the depolarized and the not-yet-but-soon-to-be depolarized part of the axon. The myelin sheath (with its gaps) increases the length of this loop and allows the signal to travel faster.
Any idea why? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Any idea why? (Score:2)
Simply because such a mechanism would not have provided any significant evolutionary advantage, because damage to the central nervous system usually resulted in death long before the body's repair mechanism can do their thing.
Of course, the latter part is no longer true for humans today, but ~100 years are merely a blip on the timescale of evolution.
Re:Any idea why? (Score:1)
- First of all, the brain cells are "terminally differentiated". This means that once their growth is complete, they can't reproduce anymore (though they're free to adapt to the environment);
- Then, when there is injury in the central nervous system, the specialized immune system of the brain (microglia) causes an inflammation that further damages the area and prevents regrowth;
- Third, neurons are *extremely* susceptible to stress: for the sake of preserving their mis
Signal to grow is there for the looking (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Signal to grow is there for the looking (Score:2, Informative)
Maybe the doctrine of not regenerating brain... (Score:2, Informative)
Maybe they're not growing... (Score:1, Offtopic)
The Lizard, anyone? (Score:1)
WTF??? (Score:3, Interesting)
And yes, I am a little pissed off at how slow and screwed up the FDA and AMA are. Stevia is bad, but have some more ritalin children.
thank god (Score:1)