Spinal cord injury - Essay Example

Spinal cord Neural cells regenerate axons in severe spinal cord injury: functional recovery in Rats The article revealsthat neural cells have the ability to regenerate axonal growth in a spinal cord injury. The research conducted in University of Carolina showed that neuron at their stages of development or growth has the ability to survive and expand axons to form a new functional axons or neural relays in a damaged spinal cord or central nervous system. The study is significant in the field of anatomy and physiology because it revealed that some kinds of adult central nervous system axons could withstand an inhibitory surrounding to grow or develop over long distance.

Significantly, the stem cells in all species showed these features. In their research, scientists released that adult cells in an injury site have the ability to regenerate into neural stem cells forming a new relay route that they could be in a position to measure electronically. To prove their discovery, the scientists demonstrated using rats where they found that mechanism motivating recovery was because of formation of new relays. When rats that had injured spinal cord recovered, their spinal cords were in a position to re-transect above the implant.

The motor function in rats diminished showing the formation of new relays in the injured place. The merit of this research is that the grafting process resulted in important functional enhancement or improvement. For instance, using a walking scale of 21, in absence of treatment, the rats scored 1.5 after a stem cell treatment; it increased to seven a score that showed that the rats’ ability to move all joints of injured legs. The research was successful when human cells were applied in that the researchers were able to notice the formation of new relays in the affected area.

The other advantage of the study is that it applied green fluorescent proteins in tracing and tracking neurons stem growth in the injured place. By tracking the stem cells, the green fluorescent proteins were in a position to observe the stem cells grow, develop into neurons, and grow axons, thus depicting the capability of these cells growing and linking with the host neurons. The study has shown that there is a possibility for a person to recover from spinal cord injury because during the early-stages, neurons are able to withstand inhibitors available in the adult central nervous system that function to maintain the spinal cord or the central nervous system and ensure that cells in the CNS do not grow aberrantly.

The demerit of this research is that the research failed to elaborate how long it takes the new relays to grow in order to ensure full recovery of the affected CNS. Work CitedScienceDaily. Neural Cells Regenerate Axons in Severe Spinal Cord Injury: Functional Recovery in Rats. 13 Web. Sept. 2012.