I last wrote an article about stem cell therapy on 7 September 2010. What has happened since then?

Stem cell therapy

The 'GERON' embryonic stem cell trials have started in the USA, with two patients undergoing injections of cells grown from embryonic stem cells, the first starting in October 2010.

T J Achison, a 21-year-year-old nursing student, was the first patient, and has a high spinal cord lesion as a result of a road traffic accident. The identity of the second patient hasn't been made public.

It's hoped that cells injected into the body will repair damaged nerves and bring back some movement and mobility.

The submission to the FDA (the body that approves clinical trials in the USA) ran to around a massive 22,500 pages.

The movement to clinical trials in relation to spinal cord injuries seems to have boosted interest in the use of similar biotechnology for conditions such as macular degeneration and spinal muscular atrophy by other American biotechnology companies.

Will it work? Well there's a huge amount of debate in the medical profession about this. Some are of the view that it's not possible to reverse damage to the brain and/or spinal cord. I don't  believe that any of the most eminent experts believe it'll produce a miracle cure rendering a patient able to walk again.

I recommend reading an article in Technology Review entitled 'Stem Cell Gamble' for anyone interested in this area.

Electrical stimulation to the spinal cord: Rob Summers

In May this year there was a lot of publicity concerning Rob Summers, who sustained spinal cord damage in a car accident in 2006. He was a fit athlete prior to his accident.

The University of Louisville, Kentucky, implanted 16 electrodes into his spine and sent electrical impulses to his lower spinal cord in an attempt to mimic the signals that would have been sent normally had he not been injured. He's now able to move his hips and legs and walk (with support) on a treadmill, though it's taken him two years to reach this stage after training on the treadmill with his physiotherapists. This is interesting, because it appears to suggest that the brain doesn't control movement of the lower limbs, and that the spinal cord does, using its own neural network. It's been stressed that this was a trial of just one patient, and may not be of general application to spinal cord injured patients.

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