Hope for spinal cord injuries

Stem cell therapy offers possibility of relief from chronic pain and incontinence suffered by those with paralysis

SAN FRANCISCO — Researchers have successfully transplanted healthy human cells into mice with spinal cord injuries, bringing the world one step closer to easing the chronic pain and incontinence suffered by people with paralysis.

The research team did not focus on restoring the rodents’ ability to walk; rather, it helped remedy these two other debilitating side effects of spinal cord injury.

If successful in humans, the findings could someday ease the lives of those with these distressing conditions, said Dr. Arnold Kriegstein, co-senior author of the study and director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UC San Francisco. The research was published in Thursday’s issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.

“This is a very important step,” Kriegstein said. “The treated animals improved in pain relief and bladder function. The research offers the promising potential of using a new therapeutic approach — cell therapy — to repair damaged neural tissue, showing that new cells can be integrated into an