Dog study points to spinal chord repair hopes

Published on 19/11/2012 01:30

A STUDY of dogs with severe spinal injuries suffered in accidents offers new hope for paralysed humans.

Scientists restored movement to the dogs’ hind legs by bridging breaks in the spinal cord using cells taken from their noses.

The trial is the first to demonstrate effective spinal cord repair in “real life” injury cases.

Professor Robin Franklin, one of the study leaders from Cambridge University, said: “Our findings show for the first time that transplanting these types of cell into a severely damaged spinal cord can bring about significant improvement.”