Brain-Cell Transplants Correct Muscle Spasms After Aneurysm Surgery

October 19, 2004 | Source: KurzweilAI

UC San Diego researchers found that transplantation of human brain cells corrected involuntary muscle spasms in rats with ischemic spinal cord injury.

Ischemic spinal cord injury is caused by reduced blood flow to the spinal cord. Patients with ischemic spinal cord injury develop a prominent muscle spasticity, or jerkiness of the legs and lower body, due to the irreversible loss of specialized spinal cord cells that control local motor function.

The UCSD team found that rats receiving the neuronal cell transplants displayed a progressive recovery of motor function and a decrease in spasticity in the lower extremities over a period of several weeks following the injections. Fifty percent of the animals experienced a significant improvement in motor function.

UC San Diego news release