WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Injections of stem cells derived from aborted fetuses helped mice regain mobility after spinal cord injuries, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
The study is the latest research in rodents to show promise for the use of stem cells to treat damaged spinal cords. Researchers hope the technology one day will help people who are paralyzed recover movement.
Stem cells are immature cells that have the potential to turn into different kinds of cells and tissues. There are various sources, from bone marrow to fetal tissue to embryos. Use of embryonic cells is controversial because some consider it immoral to destroy an embryo to get the cells.
The cells in the new study were harvested by StemCells Inc. (STEM.O: Quote, Profile, Research) from aborted fetuses. The company isolated neural stem cells that make up brain or spinal cord tissue, and copies were grown in a lab.
Researchers at the University of California at Irvine injected the cells into mice who had damage to the lower part of their spines and had lost movement in their hind legs.
Within six to eight weeks, the mice "were walking fairly normally. They are not 100 percent … but we have improved them to a level that you can actually see," said Brian Cummings, the study's lead author.
The mice "not only recover stepping, but they recover coordination between front limbs and hind limbs, and they recover the ability to raise their tail while they are walking," he said.
The improvements lasted four months. At that time, scientists injected a toxin to kill the human stem cells without harming the mouse cells. The improvements in walking vanished.
That "definitely shows … that these cells are contributing" to the improved function, Cummings said.
The study was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Institutes of Health and the Christopher Reeve Foundation funded the research.
Other experiments have shown various types of cells can help heal spinal injuries in rodents. In July, scientists reported that genetically engineered stem cells from rat embryos helped the severed spinal cords of rats grow back together.
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