Yet promising hope is on the horizon for the almost half a million Americans who suffer from some form of spinal cord injury. According to an ASME article, Researchers, engineers and physicians, at the University of California at San Diego Neural Tissue Engineering Lab are in clinical trials for a device that could be implanted at the injury site and direct the "axons," the threadlike parts of nerve cells that carry the impulses to other cells, to regrow in the proper orientation and direction, "from head to tail" as the researchers say must happen. Without specific instructions and chemicals, the axons lack the natural ability to regenerate. In previous implants the inflammatory environment of the injured site destroyed the "neural progenitor cells" which provide the axons with the chemicals, but not the direction for growth. The new implant, generated by nano 3D printing, not only protects the neural progenitor cells from the harsh environment but also provides tubes about twice the diameter of a human hair to direct their growth, "from head to tail."
While the researchers caution that clinical trials on humans are probably five years away, those who currently suffer from a spinal cord injury have a promising hope in this potentially miraculous technology. - Dr. Tom
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