Scientist finds nerve cells can reconnect

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Scientist finds nerve cells can reconnect

An Australian scientist has found that nerve cells in elderly people can form

new connections, offering hope to victims of strokes and spinal cord injuries.

PhD student Robert Sullivan, 28, of Newcastle University, made the discovery

while researching the anatomy of macular degeneration in the eyes of elderly

people.

 

When Sullivan studied the eyes of human donors in their late seventies and early

eighties with macular degeneration, he found evidence the nerve cells in the

retina were able to respond to the disease by forming new connections with

neurons linking the eyes to the brain.

 

" It's extremely exciting because it's saying adult nerve cells have the capacity

to reconnect, " Sullivan's supervisor David Pow said.

 

" This is going to provide us with insights into how we might now enhance this

capacity to try to provide therapy downstream for injured brains. "

 

Pow said the discovery could lead to effective treatment for damaged human

nervous systems after strokes and spinal cord injuries.

 

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

http://www.physorg.com/printnews.php?newsid=11131

 

 

 

 

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired

signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are

not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

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