Nerve Cell Regeneration

There are about a quarter of a million people in the United States living with spinal cord injuries. In addition, between 7,600 and 10,000 new injuries occur each year. Nearly half of these new injuries will occur in young people between the ages of 16 and 30. As a person in this category, I have become very interested in the research to find a cure for spinal cord injuries and hope to share some of the information I found with you today. In order for you to fully understand the details I will be sharing with you, I'd like to begin with a

Added to this is the fact that medical advances mean spinal cord injury patients are living much longer than in the past, and going on to develop secondary conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

b. Detached axon segments remain attached for a few days after nerve injury (Rotshenker, S., 2011).

According to the World Health Organisation, around the world, between 250,000 and 500,000 people suffer from spinal cord injuries. People living with these spinal cord injuries are said to be 40% more likely to die prematurely than those who do not suffer from these particular injuries. One possible treatment that can be applied is the use of embryonic stem cells to help treat patients with spinal cord injuries. Embryonic Stem Cells (ESCs), as their name suggest, are derived from the inner cell mass from an early stage, pre-implantation embryo, known as a blastocyst, from eggs which have been fertilized via in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Once consent has been given by the host, these pluripotent stem cells are then cultured and donated for research purposes. The Human Embryonic Stem Cells, (hESCs) serve a multitude of purposes, ranging from growing synthetic organisms, treating degenerative disease and also repairing damaged tissue. The omnipotence of hESCs allows them to have the potential to successfully treat spinal cord injuries by stimulation spinal cord neuronal regeneration. This method could be applied to save many patients lives as well as provide social and economic benefits. Consequently, however, the use of hESCs provides a highly controversial debate. Whilst this method may alleviate financial burdens of living with spinal cord injuries, the use of hESCs also arises many ethical issues concerning their use. Also, alternative solutions such

One question that is commonly asked is “Why can’t humans regrow their limbs like a lizard?” the answer to that question is no not naturally. That is because lizards have specialized cells that can change from one type of body cell to another. For example when rebuilding the tail the lizard will need a muscle cell. Soon after that a skin cell will “reprogram” to become a muscle call for the new tail. That is why humans cannot regrow limbs naturally. There is still hope that one day human will have a treatment that will allow us to regrow limbs. Scientists at Rikens Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe Japan conducted an experiment where they took stem cells put them into a human brain and “rewired” them to form a fully functioning

efficiency of the repair and functional recovery is still unpredictable. The purpose of this review is to

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells—Derived Neural Crest Stem Cells and the maintenance of Neural crest stem cell multipotency

Taking a closer look at the cerebrum, allows us to have a better understanding of the dying-forward cascade and its important role in initiating disease onset (Thomsen, et al., 2014). The outer layer of this complex organ composed of gray matter is the cerebral cortex, region where the corticospinal neurons related to ALS are located. These upper motor neurons responsible for collecting, integrating, translating, and transferring information to the spinal cord reside in layer 5 of the motor cortex (Thomsen, et al., 2014), and are the most vulnerable to be injured by excitotoxicity initiating an anterograde degeneration. In general, ALS research has devoted less attention to the UMN pathology primarily focusing on the LMN connectivity with the neuromuscular junction (NMJ) (Thomsen, et al., 2014). In spite of this remark, recent studies continue to use spinal cord neurons from transgenic SOD1 mice but their priority has switched to the UMN behavior. On a study using mutant SOD1G39A rats, (Thomsen, et al., 2014) wanted to establish whether the upper motor neuron might still play a critical role in disease progression by knocking down mutant SOD1expression in only the motor cortex. As a consequence of this assay, it was shown for the first time that suppression at the top of the motor neuron pathway results in significant delay in ALS disease onset. Thus, further highlighting the importance of the upper motor neurons in ALS (Thomsen, et al., 2014).

In the year of 2010 I suffered from a spinal cord injury from attempting to make a tackle during football practice. I was immediately paralyzed from the chest down with fracturing my C-4 and C-5 vertebras. With me

The injuries of nervous system affect many people every year and is estimated that spinal cord injuries alone affect 10,000 each year. Nerve regeneration can be achieved by production of new neurons, glia, axons, myelin, or synapses. There are differences between the functional mechanisms of peripheral nervous system (PNS) and the central nervous system (CNS). PNS has an intrinsic ability for repair and regeneration while CNS usually is incapable of self-repair and regeneration. There is currently no treatment for recovering human nerve function after injury to the CNS. Although, PNS has self-regeneration capacity, much research still needs to be performed for optimizing the environment for maximum regrowth. Injury to PNS immediately elicits the migration of phagocytes, Schwann cells, and macrophages to the lesion site in order to clear away debris such as damaged tissue [56-60].

Evaluation of the prognosis of recovery of the nerve injury should be first established before management could be done conservatively or using a surgical approach.

Before we determine how stem cells can treat various diseases including spinal cord injuries, let us first

Stem cells are cells that are found throughout the human body. They reproduce over a long period of time without changing. Stem cells can produce specialized cells, such as brain, muscle or lung cells. Stem cells in the last few years have recently made a big debut because medical professionals have discovered so many unique qualities to stem cells. They are on the cutting edge of medicine because of all their uses and the qualities that make them so unique from any other cell in the body. Stem cells have the power to make so many breakthroughs in the medical world. Medical researchers have all ready found so many ways that stem cells can be used for the better of so many people. Genes play an important role in determining what genetic traits or mutations we receive. Researching stem cells can help determine this. Stem cell research is useful for learning many things about human development and about how the body has the power to repair itself. Researchers are finding new ways each day that stem cells can be used and the possibilities that they find for stem cells could be endless. A few ways they can be used to treat diseases, be used as graphs for burn victims or surgical use, and even to correct birth defects. The pros of stem cells are limitless.

It also could lead to a way to repair damaged nerves by cloning the nerve cells from the injured person.

There are many recent and exciting discoveries in the world of nanotechnology, and new studies examining the possibilities of neural regeneration are not the least of them. The Central Nervous System – consisting of the brain and spinal cord – is perhaps the structure most vital for life in the human body. Unfortunately, it also has one of the slowest and most limited rates of natural regeneration. Damage to the brain or spinal cord or loss of nerve tissue due to degenerative diseases can create life-long physical, cognitive, and psychological debilitation. The devastating implications of damage to the central nervous system have given rise to a field of scientists and clinicians aspiring to understand the system and ultimately repair said damage. Meanwhile, technological innovations have brought us ever closer to actually finding a workable cure. There have been developments in chemical and biochemical fields in this matter and the most promising of these approaches are stem-cell-based therapies. Stem cells are simply undifferentiated cells that are capable of differentiating into specialized cells such as nervous tissue and dividing to create more stem cells. Neural stem cells in particular are capable of differentiating into “neurons, astrocytes, or oligodendrocytes.1”