rescued when their cut nerve fibres interacted with the astrocytes transplanted into spinal cord injuries. In contrast, transplanted precursor cells failed to suppress scar formation or promote the growth of any nerve fibres across the injury site. Importantly, in a sensitive test of limb placement during walking, rats that received the astrocyte transplants recovered and were able to walk normally within two weeks, whereas the other rats that received undifferentiated precursor cells did not recover at all and still had difficulties with walking four weeks after the surgery.

These studies make important advances in both stem cell technology and identification of the right cell types for repairing the injured adult nervous system.

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Contact: Juliette Savin
juliette.savin@biomedcentral.com
44-207-631-9931
BioMed Central
26-Apr-2006

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