PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 20-Oct-2014 Contact: Robert Miranda cogcomm@aol.com Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair The study will be published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation and is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/content-CT-1239_Tabakow_et_al. The American Spinal Injury Association's (ASIA) international classification of spinal cord injury is widely used to document and classify sensory and motor impairments following SCI. Stages of impairment are based on neurological responses, touch and pinprick sensations, and the strength of the muscles that control ten key motions on both sides of the body. Traumatic spinal cord injury is classified into five categories on the ASIA Impairment Scale. "A" indicates a "complete" spinal cord injury where no motor or sensory function is preserved in the sacral segments S4-S5. "C" indicates an "incomplete" spinal cord injury where motor function is preserved below the neurological level and fewer than half of the key muscles below the neurological level have a muscle grade of 3 or more. "After OEC transplantation and the building of the nerve bridge, this patient improved from ASIA A to ASIA C," said Dr. Pawel Tabakow of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Wroclaw Medical University … Continue reading →

They used a nerve bridge constructed between the two stumps of the damage spinal column. A Bulgarian man who was paralyzed from the chest down in a knife attack can now walk with the aid of a frame after receiving pioneering transplant treatment using cells from his nose. The technique, described as a breakthrough by a study in the journal Cell Transplantation, involved transplanting what are known as olfactory ensheathing cells into the patients spinal cord and constructing a nerve bridge between two stumps of the damaged spinal column. We believe this procedure is the breakthrough which, as it is further developed, will result in a historic change in the currently hopeless outlook for people disabled by spinal cord injury, said Geoffrey Raisman, a professor at University College Londons (UCL) institute of neurology, who led the research. The 38-year-old patient, Darek Fidyka, was paralyzed after suffering stab wounds to his back in 2010. Following 19 months of treatment, he has recovered some voluntary movement and some sensation in his legs, his medics said. The Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation, a British-based charity which part-funded the research, said in statement that Fidyka was continuing to improve more than predicted, and was now … Continue reading →