Nerves connect your brain to your body by carrying sensory and motor signals from the brain down the spinal cord and to the muscles throughout the body. According to Shepherd Center, the information is transmitted across large distances through a part of the neuron called the axon, which acts like a wire. Axons are protected by a material called myelin, which you can think of as the insulation around the wire.
Spinal Cord Injuries
When the spinal cord is injured, two things can happen. One, the nerve axons can get damaged, blocking the nerves from sending important motor and sensory signals. Secondly, the myelin insulation can also break down, leaving the nerves exposed and unable to function normally. Their approach uses a cell type known as Oligodendrocytes progenitor cells, OPCs. These OPCs are made from human embryonic stem cells, which can become any cell type in the body.
The stem cell derived OPCS are introduced directly into the spinal cord at the site of the injury, where they can help repair damaged nerves and can produce more myelin in the spinal cord. This therapy is exciting because it utilizes a type of cell similar to one naturally found in the body and harnesses its natural function to re-insulate and repair the nerves damaged in spinal cord injury. With support from the introduced OPCs, damaged nerves at the site of injury might recover their functional abilities to conduct motor and sensory signals between the brain and the hands, arms and fingers, and hopefully reverse some of the devastating paralysis that affect so many patients with spinal cord injuries.
