Spinal Cord Repair

The Australian Stem Cell Centre is working on a new way to repair spinal cord damage. They will use a naturally occurring acellular matrices to support and facilitate regeneration of nervous tissue. This solves the problem of rejection associated with biosynthetic matrices or allograft material. These acellular matrices are made by taking donor tissue and putting them in tonic conditions to remove the cellular material while leaving the underlying collagen and basement membrane intact. This is then freeze-dried. When it is ready to be used, all one has to do is add water. Since the cellular material has been removed it is relatively non-immunogenic. This technology is already being used in the US for burns, mucosal tissue repair, abdominal wall reconstruction, and breast reconstruction. Researchers hope to start large animal models and combine this method with new technologies, such as seed stem cells. ~John Austin Mullins

http://www.biotechnews.com.au/index.php?id=1068034036&fp=16&fpid=0