Repair of chronic spinal cord injury

摘要: Advances in medical and rehabilitative care now allow the 10-12,000 individuals who suffer spinal cord injuries each year United States to lead productive lives of nearly normal life expectancy, so that numbers those with chronic will approximate 300,000 at end next decade. This signals an urgent need for new treatments improve repair recovery after longstanding injuries. In present report we consider characteristics chronically injured make it even more challenging setting which elicit regeneration than acutely review have been designed enhance axon growth. When applied first 2 weeks experimental injury, transplants, usually combination supplementary neurotrophic factors, possibly modifications inhibitory central nervous system environment, produced limited long-distance behavioral recovery. older 4 weeks, same almost invariably failed overcome obstacles posed by neurons' diminished capacity increasing hostility growth terrain beyond injury site. Novel stimulated acute not yet A therapeutic strategy combines rehabilitation training pharmacological modulation neurotransmitters appears be a particularly promising approach injury. Identifying patients no hope useful early days these administered as possible.