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Recent developments in understanding the development and workings of the human spinal cord may have found a way to help spinal cord injuries to heal, and offer new hope for patients suffering from spinal damage as a result of accidents and degenerative motor neuron diseases.

Following a spinal cord injury, many people experience paralysis to varying degrees below the point of injury. In addition, nerves as well as body parts linked to the functions of the spinal cord in specific areas surrounding the injury will also cease functioning. Thousands of people suffer spinal cord injuries occur on a daily basis and many are affected by irreversible paralysis and disability. The main reason for this is that up until now, scientists and researchers in the medical field have believed that the central nervous system is unable to regenerate after such an injury.

However, the Research Endeavor for Spinal Cord in United Europe project, and researchers at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research, have been pondering the possibility of using adult stem cells to help those with spinal injuries. To date, adult stem cells have not been considered as a potential for therapeutic treatment for spinal injury. Nevertheless, using electron microscopy and the expression of neural precursor cell markers, researchers were able to identify the existence of neural stem cells in the spinal cord.

It is hoped that by cultivating such cells in vitro, researchers may learn how to differentiate and train these cells to perform signal transmissions of the nervous system.

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