US scientists have made a chance discovery that could lead to new treatments to repair damaged nerves and spinal cords. Professor Alex Kolodkin and Dr Jeroen Pasterkamp of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have discovered a chemical that appears to play an important role in influencing the direction of nerve cell growth. The researchers found that when they placed nerve cells next to a substance called semaphorin-7a, there was significantly more cell growth in the direction of the semaphorin-7a than there was in any other direction. Furthermore, experiments conducted on mice bred to lack semaphorin-7a revealed that the animal’s brains did not develop properly. Kolodkin and Pasterkamp hope that semaphorin-7a, and other chemicals that have the opposite effect on nerve cells could somehow be used to direct the regrowth of damaged nerves, and thus encourage spinal cord injuries to heal properly.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.bbc.co.uk on the 28th July 2003.
