  Rat Healing Raises Hope for Spinal Cure LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists said on Monday they were closer to finding a cure for people paralyzed by spinal cord damage, following the successful healing of an adult rat. Pilot trials for human patients will begin within three years, research team leader Dr Geoffrey Raisman told Reuters. "This is ground-breaking evidence because it will help people with spinal cord injury who have previously had no hope of recovery," he said. The trials will involve transplanting cells from other areas of the body into the spinal cord so they can provide a bridge over the spinal cord blockage and provide it with a channel to repair itself. Currently there is no cure for patients who suffer spinal and brain cord injuries, which depending on the severity of injury, leaves them paralyzed, without control over their bowels, bladder, blood pressure and with no sexual function. Scientists healed the injured spinal cord of a rat by growing a bridge of olfactory nerve cells across scar tissue, which acted as a guide so the severed nerve fibres were able to find their way to the right targets in the rat's brain.
If the human pilot trials are successful, patients will be able to make important movements like reaching for and picking things up. The restoration of other functions like bladder control require further research, Raisman said. The pilot trials will involve transplanting cells from the patients' nasal lining into the spinal cord.
"Until we carry out the tests in humans we do not know if it will work, but the organization of the rat's spinal cord and its control mechanisms that we have looked at are essentially similar to those found in humans," said Raisman. The trials will take at least three years to be carried out because the research team needs to be sure that the cells used for repair are present and in the right numbers, he said. 
