In further tests 14 days after the initial injury, Keirstead and Lane found that the treated rats had far greater mobility than the untreated mice, suggesting that further tissue damage caused by T-cells can lead to increased paralysis.
"The difference in mobility between the treated and untreated rats was dramatic," Keirstead said. "It points to the necessity of treating people with antibodies immediately after their spinal cord injuries as part of both regular trauma care and their recovery program." Rafael Gonzalez, Janette Glaser and Michael T. Liu of UCI assisted on the study, which was supported by the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund of California, Research for the Cures and individual donations to the Reeve-Irvine Research Center.
The Reeve-Irvine Research Center was established to study how injuries and diseases traumatize the spinal cord and result in paralysis or other loss of neurologic function, with the goal of finding cures. It also facilitates the coordination and cooperation of scientists around the world seeking cures for paraplegia, quadriplegia and other diseases impacting neurological function. Named for actor Christopher Reeve, the center is part of the UCI College of Medicine.
Keirstead and Lane also are principals in Ability Biomedical Corp., a pharmaceutical development firm developing chemokine-based therapeutic drugs for treating spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis. They recently created a human antibody based on the one used in this study to be used in future clinical trials. In 2001, the researchers found that the same antibodies used in this study were also effective in stopping and reversing nerve damage in multiple sclerosis triggered by T-cells.
The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked public university dedicated to the principles of research, scholarship and community. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 2
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Contact: Tom Vasich
tmvasich@uci.edu
949-824-6455
University of California - Irvine
13-Nov-2003