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Science Daily: Paralyzed rats walk again!

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posted on Jun, 5 2012 @ 11:36 AM
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Paralysed rats walk again in Swiss lab study


Gregoire Courtine and his team at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne saw rats with severe paralysis walking and running again after a couple of weeks following a combination of electrical and chemical stimulation of the spinal cord together with robotic support.

Courtine is quick to point out that it remains unclear if a similar technique could help people with spinal cord damage but he adds the technique does hint at new ways of treating paralysis.


so these paralyzed rats are now running, jumping, avoiding obstacles, etc. Pretty awesome!


UNRELATED PICTURE
(This is some random picture from the internet but I thought it added flavor to the thread so I threw it in. It ~may~ be related to the original source group but I'm not sure.)




edit on 5-6-2012 by Thermo Klein because: (no reason given)



posted on Jun, 5 2012 @ 01:40 PM
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According to the article you linked, these rats had spinal cords that were completely severed. My question is, did they see any regenerative growth of the rat's spinal cords? Is the electrical stimulation done on the lower end of the severed cord in order to cause muscle contractions in the legs to stimulate walking movement? The article does not make these things clear.

The article also states that most human spinal injuries are not a complete cut of the cord, but rather a bruising or compression injury. I would think that an intact cord could maybe regenerate easier than a severed one.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing this OP.



 
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