Good news for "wusses": Research links pain sensitivity to gene
...ng activates dedicated pain nerves in the body and spinal cord that relayimpulses to the brain. But superimposed at strategic places on nerves in thissystem are the mu receptors. They respond to natural opiates in the body and,like mutes on so many trumpets, effectively damp down pain's intensity. ...Gene therapy holds promise for treating inherited Lou Gehrig's Disease
...taken up by the terminals of the nervecells in the spinal cord that control movement. This potentially eliminates theside effects resulting from injection of large amounts of these potent moleculeswhere little of the substance obtains access to the appropriate neurons. Bohn stated that the challenge...$6.75 Million to extend primate studies of diet and aging
...keys on a reduced-calorie diet have fewer signs of spinal arthritis, acondition that manifests itself with age in rhesus monkeys and humans alike. Physical activity in calorie-restricted animals and monkeys not on a dietis about the same. Signs that fewer calories may reduce the risk of vascular disease. ...UK researchers discover a molecular cause of spinal cord injuries
...dto apoptosis, or programmed cell death, following spinal cord injury. "This work represents a major...nt in our understanding of howand why cells in the spinal cord die following injury," said Joe Springer,Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Anatomy and ...Transplant cells show capacity for mending nervous system
...f the central nervous system.Transplanted into the spinal cords of fetal and newborn rats that lack myelin, ...that embryonic stem cells can be used for brainand spinal cord repair in an animal model of a human neurological disease," saidOliver Brüstle, a neuropat...Biology, engineering jointly train students in neuro-mechanics
... to restore movement to arms and legs lost through spinal cord injuries. The first motor system neuroprosth... restores hand grasp function for individuals with spinal cord injury. It was developed by CWRU biomedical engineers with funding from the National Institutes...NIAMS funds multicenter study of surgical vs. nonsurgical treatment of back pain
...atients who have a herniated (bulging) lumbardisc, spinal stenosis (narrowing of the canal through which the spinal cord passes) or degenerativespondylolisthesis, where a vertebra in the spine slips forward out o...NIAMS funds the North American Spondylitis Consortium
... andto a limited degree, antibiotics. In cases of spinal fusion, surgery is used tostraighten the back and allow a person to stand upright; however, restoringoriginal flexibility and function is not possible. There is no cure. "Recent familial studies show genes other than HLA-B27 have possibleimplication...Brain releases marijuana-like substance in response to pain, study finds
...hat connects the cerebral hemispheres with the spinal cord. It is very similar in animals and humans. Electrical stimulation of the PAG in anesthetized animal models wasaccompanied by both pain suppression and a marked increase in the release of anandamide. Furthermore, injectionsof formalin, a...Errant nerve cells risk a clockwork death
...ber 21, 1999 --Fetal nerve cells growing along the spinal cordliterally race against the clock to create con...g life-sustaining chemical signals fromspecialized spinal cord tissue. According to MarcTessier-Lavigne , an HHMI investigator at UCSF, the discovery likely...Yale and Alexion report advance in spinal cord repair
...he myelin sheath around the injuredfragment of the spinal cord. Alexion believes that these results represent acritical milestone in progressing its spinal cord product into patient trials. The report, entitled "Xenotransplantation of Transgenic Pig Myelin...New treatment may relieve chronic pain, as reported in the 19 November issue of Science
... to selectively destroy certain nerve cells in the spinal cord. Because this approach targets just those ner...aulty signaling by a small group of neurons in the spinal cord. These signals can either make patients hypersensitive to stimuli that are minimally painful (s...A molecule family hinders spinal cord regeneration, UF brain institute team finds
...ies to restorecommunication among cells in injured spinal cords, but scientists long have wondered why thetr...bute to the failure of the adult, mammalianinjured spinal cord to regenerate," added Michele L. Lemons, a visiting assistant professor atHamilton College in N...Health of normal synapses seen to depend on neurotrophin signaling
...omuscular junction,a type of synapse that connects spinal cord cells called motor neurons and skeletal muscle fibers. The neuromuscularjunction is thought by neuroscientists to be similar to synapses in the brain and has long been used as a model system inmany studies. In looking for one of the target rec...New transgenic mouse likely to advance Alzheimer's disease research
...s of a normal protein called tau in neurons of the spinal cord, brain stem, and brain. Similar aggregations ...neurons. In the tau mouse, tangles are seen in the spinal cord, brain stem, and brain, with the greatest aggregations in the spinal cord. This resembles the t...New tool provides major advance for understanding chronic Lyme disease and other illnesses
... the Lyme agent, Borrelia burgdorferi, in both his spinal fluid and blood. Their technique identified the s...scientists used the T cells found in the patient's spinal fluid to probe for what might be triggering the immune response causing his disease. First, they gr...$500,000 gift launches new clinical research effort in peripheral neuropathy
...e processes that are located outside the brain and spinal cord. It has many causes, ranging from direct traumatic injury to the nerves; damage to or swelling of the sheaths around nerves, such as in carpal tunnel syndrome; circulation problems, such as atherosclerosis; or autoimmune diseases, such as Guilli...Zebrafish's powerful heart gene could lead to transplant therapy
...a tubular nervous system divided into thebrain and spinal cord - and are therefore more likely to be genetically similarto humans than non-vertebrate models such as yeast, roundworms and fruit flies(even though the latter have provided valuable information about mechanisms invertebrate). Moreover, unlike ot...Molecular fats prevent nerve sheath abnormality
...he wiring circuitry of both the central (brain and spinal cord) and peripheral nervous systems. In his laboratory in the UNC Neuroscience Center, Dr. Brian J. Popko, associate professor of biochemistry, studies myelin on two overlapping levels. "We're interested in the basic molecular biology and biochemi...Injured spinal neurons reach out to each other, but not to healthy neighbors
After injury, spinal neurons establish specialized bridges to connect w...to suggest how connectivity between neurons in the spinal cord and between neurons and muscle might be re-established after peripheral nerve damage or spinal ...