Nose Cells May Help the Paralyzed Walk Again

Sarah Boseley/Teresa Neumann Reporting : Dec 2, 2005
The Guardian UK

In a new report published in the Guardian UK, surgeons will attempt early next year to mend the severed nerves of young people who have suffered motorbike accidents in the first trial of a simple but potentially revolutionary technology that could one day allow the paralyzed to walk again.

Neuroscientist Geoffrey Raisman, head of the spinal repair unit of University College in London discovered 20 years ago that cells from the lining of the nose constantly regenerate themselves. Now, says reporter Sarah Boseley, his team believes that if those cells were implanted at the site of the damage they would build a bridge across the break, allowing the nerve fibers to knit back together.

Reportedly, the first operations will not enable someone badly hurt to walk again, but they could heal the more common type of injury sustained when the nerves in the arm are pulled out of the spinal cord. Until now, such injuries have been inoperable.

"I don't know that it will work, but I think it will work," Prof Raisman said yesterday. "If you forced me to bet, I would bet on it working. I have been patient. I didn't jump in the dark. I have grown through the research all these years. It was in 1985 I discovered the cells. It has taken 20 years before I felt we had the technology to apply this to people. After spending this amount of time developing it, I'm not in a hurry. This is not the final stage, but it is the crucial stage of the research."

The procedure also has the potential to heal other nerve injuries, such as those caused by stroke, blindness and deafness. "If this works well, it opens the door to an enormous area," Prof Raisman said. "This is a door which has never been opened: to repair injuries to the brain and spinal cord caused by the disconnection of nerve fibers. The best possible outcome will be that these patients will get a return of sensation to the arm and a reduction of the pain associated with that injury."

"This is proof of principle," added Raisman. "If it is proved...it will be like a tidal wave. But the only race I'm in is the human race. This has got an enormous future but I don't have the illusion I'm going to see it all the way through. We're producing a procedure where the patient is their own cure. You can't patent a patient's own cells, thank God."