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Paralyzed rats cured

11.06.2012

Rats with severe spinal cord injury that completely lost connection with the brain, and therefore lost control of their lower legs, learned to run after a couple of weeks of chemical and electrical stimulation of the spinal cords and special training using a robotic belt. This is reported in an article by a group of Swiss and French researchers published in the latest issue of the journal Science. It is possible that in the near future the same method can be successfully applied to paralyzed people.

A few years ago, the same group of scientists succeeded in waking up the spinal cord, cut off from the brain, and getting a paralyzed rat to move its legs on a moving walkway. They did this by pumping the sensors of the spinal neurons with chemical stimulants and making them ready to walk. Then, through the electrodes implanted in the spinal cord, they passed a long electrical impulse, which was perceived as a signal for action, and the rat began to walk.

It was an unconscious action, not dependent on the brain. Then scientists changed tactics. They ditched the moving walkway and instead placed the mouse on a platform that had a chocolate treat at the other end. In the vertical state, the rat was supported by a robot belt suspended from above, which turned on only when the animal began to fall. Aroused by the described method, the spinal cord revived the legs, and the rat, believing that it could walk by itself, tried to rush to the chocolate. At the same time, the growth rate of nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord, spurred on by this desire, increased dramatically, and after two or three weeks of such training, the fibers found a bypass and connected. First, the rat took one conscious step, then two, and, after a while, walked on its own. And not only walked, but also ran, climbed stairs and avoided obstacles.

Professor Grégoire Courtin, who heads this study, says that artificially paralyzed rats are XNUMX% rehabilitated. He is optimistic about applying the same method to paralyzed people, and although he does not promise anything definite, he plans to start clinical trials in a Zurich hospital in the next two to three years.

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