Word: corded
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...went at Kessler. Some days fear, some peace, some resentment. He had started out at Kessler "with a kind of arrogance and denial," but then began to accept the institute as the locus of his recovery. A nurse named Patty forced him to read a manual on spinal-cord injuries (he had refused at first). He read about the effect of paralysis on respiratory problems, on bowels. He read about sexual activity. He read about the dangers to which he was prone, like dysreflexia, a condition most commonly resulting from a clogged bowel or urinary tract, which the patient cannot...
...people. Although doctors quickly pointed out that it may be years before last week's findings could be turned into an effective therapy, they too were clearly buoyed. In a companion commentary, New York University neuroscientist Dr. Wise Young wrote, "The possibility of effective regenerative therapies for human spinal cord injury is no longer a speculation but a realistic goal...
...past. They widened the gap (by removing a quarter inch of spine) to ensure that no nerve tissue remained to produce false-positive results. Then they built their cellular bridges according to a precise blueprint that carefully distinguished between the two kinds of nerve tissue in the spinal cord--white and gray matter. White matter contains the parts of nerves that are surrounded by a substance called myelin, which acts like insulation around an electric wire. Gray matter contains the parts that have no insulating myelin. It's almost impossible to get regeneration in white matter. Growth in gray matter...
Using nerves from the rat's chest muscles for the bridge, Cheng carefully connected the insulated white matter on one side of the spinal cord to uninsulated gray matter on the other. That way, the nerves in the gray matter would grow toward the white and, he hoped, re-establish contact. The investigators used a natural adhesive called fibrin to anchor the bridge in place...
Much remains to be done before paraplegics can think about rising out of their wheelchair. Most spinal injuries in people occur when the cord is crushed, not severed, so it's not yet clear how this advance could be applied to them. What is important, however, is that Dr. Cheng and his colleagues have demonstrated that there are no fundamental biological barriers to repairing damaged spinal cords. And that's a big step forward...