Method To Repair Damaged Adult Nerves Discovered

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers have discovered a promising method to regrow damaged nerves in adults. Brain and spinal-cord injuries typically leave people with permanent impairment because the injured nerve fibers (axons) cannot regrow. A study from Harvard and Carleton University, published in the December 10 issue of the journal Neuron, shows that axons can regenerate vigorously in a mouse model when a gene that suppresses natural growth factors is deleted. Here is the journal article (subscription required to view more than the abstract)."

Possibilities?

[quangdog]

Of course I did not RTFA, nor am I trained in any sort of medical field - but I imagine that the possibilities that this might present are astounding. Are they hoping to restore mobility and function to people who have had major nerve damage as in the cases of spinal cord injuries? I thought stem cells were all the rage for that..is this a completely different approach?

Also - if we can stimulate the growth of nerve cells to help people, can the same therapy be used for nefarious stuff? (i.e., what happens if you grow too much nerves?)

Re:nerve growth unsuppressed == tumors?

[windsleeper]

I would think that given the choice between a) curing oneself from being quadriplegic and increasing one's risk of cancer tremendously or b) staying quadriplegic and cancer-free, I think nearly everyone would choose the cure + cancer-risk route.

Re:Having a spinal cord injury

[couchslug]

"I can see doctors in India, China, and The Dominican Republic... "

If it's ever perfected, those may be the only affordable places for US citizens to get the treatment.

Re:nerve growth unsuppressed == tumors?

[NiteShaed]

Or maybe there's just no particularly good reason for them to regrow, meaning, an organism with a badly damaged brain is in dire shape, and unlikely to live long enough to reproduce. Now, that answer sucks from a "But I don't wanna die!" perspective, but evolution doesn't care about that.
Now, humans, being a pretty cheeky bunch, have no problem looking at this as a challenge to be overcome, and due to the fact that we can provide an individual with time and the proper environment to recover from this kind of injury. We can just come along, say "Gee, may have made sense 10,000 years ago when we were swinging from trees, but now why don't we fix this and let Bill recover instead".
Brain injuries like that are rare enough and (without care) fatal enough that we may just have never evolved a repair mechanism, because it didn't grant much of an advantage in survival.

Or maybe it'll make our brains grow uncontrollably until our eyes pop out and our skulls crack open. Could go either way I suppose....

Re:nerve growth unsuppressed == tumors?

[CharlieHedlin]

I'm sure this is also going to vary based upon the level of disability. A C1-2 Quad already has so many possible health risks that a tremendous increase in cancer actually represents an increase if life expectancy. I will leave the quality of life debate for someone else, too many variables and too many different levels of each condition.