Olfactory Bulb Glial Cell Transplant Preserves Muscles In Paraplegic Rats

ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2008) — Researchers from the “Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa” (CSIC-UAM), Córdoba University and the “Instituto de Biomedicina de Valencia” (CSIC) have analysed the degree of preservation in the skeletal muscles of paraplegic rats treated with a transplant of Olfactory bulb glial cells (OBG).

Spinal chord injuries represent a serious and irreversible handicap that is sadly frequent in our society. Because of the permanent break in the nervous connections between the brain and the organs and muscles, such injuries impair their movement inducing atrophy and deterioration while they disturb organic functions.

The pioneering studies carried out by Santiago Ramón y Cajal established that while nerve cells from the peripheral nervous system (PNS) have the capacity to repair themselves, the same does not apply to adult brain cells and spinal cord cells from the central nervous system (CNS). The difference is not in the nerve cells themselves but in the cellular enviroment that gives them support - the glial cells.

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