This work is the first creditable
advance I have seen addressing nerve repair.
No one expects a protocol that completely replaces what has been lost,
but a protocol that reestablishes cellular life in place of the lesion or gap
is a huge breakthrough. Simply put, a
fluid can be injected that quickly gels and provides a benign growing environment
for the nerve cells. This is a rather
important starting point that we all believe we can make better as we progress.
This is the first real hope for
those who suffer spinal cord injuries as well as an important step in also
treating physical brain damage brought on by surgery or injury. Obviously a protocol of care can be designed
around surgery in which the injuries are cleaned of blocking tissue and the gel
put in place.
As basic as that is, the
immediate promise is that the gaps will be filled by the specific cells required. Thus there is hope that simple physiotherapy
can then encourage the growth of pathways that allow significant recovery of
function and perhaps well beyond that.
This is fantastic news and we can
now state that the probability of a resolution for paraplegia inside five years
is no longer zero but perhaps fifty percent possible at this early stage.
Seeding the regrowth of nerves with tamarind
7 JUNE 2011
PhD student Andrew Rodda and colleagues in biomaterials research at Monash University
have been studying a plant-based compound derived from the seeds of the
tamarind tree, known as xyloglucan. It can be injected into an injury site as a
liquid and gels upon reaching body temperature.
Andrew was able to show in rats that the gel can cause nerve regrowth
within an injured brain. His work is being presented for the first time in
public through Fresh Science, a communication boot camp for early career
scientists held at the Melbourne
Museum . Andrew was one of
16 winners from across Australia .
All damage to the nerve cells of the central nervous system—the brain
and spinal cord—is considered unrepairable. This leaves sufferers of many
diseases and injuries with permanent disabilities—a major economic and social
problem worldwide.
The lack of regrowth is due mainly to the toxic environment left behind
after nerve death, Andrew says.
“Nerve cells are sensitive, and will only grow in the most supportive of
environments.”
“After injury, new cells cannot normally penetrate into the empty space
left after mass cell death. Cells clump at the edges, forming an impenetrable
barrier. This leaves the centre of the wound as a lesion, which contains
chemicals that kill growing nerves.”
Andrew and his collaborators, however, found that the gel acts as a
support structure through which cells can migrate and potentially reattach
themselves to the nervous system. “The material provides a temporary scaffold
on which new cells can grow and penetrate the lesion.”
In Andrew’s studies the gel was chemically modified to support cell
growth and then implanted into a rat brain. Not only did it encourage
regrowth in the injured brain, but it also suppressed the post-injury
inflammation around the edge of the wound, that goes on killing nerves long
after the original damage has been done. Nerves and other cell types then
entered and repopulated the empty space filled by the gel.
Significantly, it was the helper-cells known as astrocytes that were
the first to move into the implanted gel. These cells secrete beneficial
chemicals, which may have helped create an environment in which the delicate
nerve cells can survive.
Andrew’s study is part of a worldwide effort to encourage nerve
regeneration in the brain and spinal cord. It builds on previous work at Monash
to understand and control nerve growth using biomaterials.
Andrew Rodda is one of 16 early-career scientists unveiling their
research to the public for the first time thanks to Fresh Science, a national
program sponsored by the Australian Government.
Over the course of Fresh Science he is presenting his work:
in verse at Tech on Tap, part of AMP’s Amplify Festival in Sydney on Monday evening
over dinner with Australia ’s
Chief Scientist in Melbourne
to school students in Melbourne and Bendigo .
For interviews, contact Andrew Rodda on Andrew.Rodda@Monash.edu
For Fresh Science, contact Sarah Brooker on 0413 332 489 or Niall Byrne
on 0417 131 977 or niall@scienceinpublic.com.au
For Monash contact Craig Scutt, 03 9903 4844, Craig.Scutt@Monash.edu
The structure
of the solidified gel, as seen with an electron scanning microscope (photo:
David Nisbet)
The
scaffold-like structure of the gel seen even closer (photo: David Nisbet)
Andrew Rodda in
the lab (photo: Ting-Yi Wang)
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