Word: schwann
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Scientists had been wrestling with that problem long before Reeve was hurt, but he helped drive their research. An area of study that his foundation funds involves so-called Schwann cells, which play a role in helping nonspinal nerves to regenerate. In animal studies, Schwann cells grafted to the damaged part of the spine encourage nerve cells to grow into the graft but not, so far, to connect downstream. "They fail to bridge the cord," says Dalton Dietrich, scientific director of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis...
Scientists are trying to get around that by fortifying Schwann grafts with cells from the olfactory bulb, a bundle of nerve tissue in the nasal cavity. Olfactory cells regenerate well, and when they are combined with Schwann cells in animals, spinal tissue does a better job of reconnecting...
Another approach the Reeve Foundation has helped fund involves treating the spinal cord with a drug called rolipram, which stops injured tissue from breaking down. Paralyzed rats treated with Schwann cells and rolipram have shown a 70% improvement in mobility. Elsewhere, researchers are working on ways to neutralize growth inhibitors, proteins in the body that--for reasons known only to nature--block the healing of spinal tissue. By synthesizing other proteins that inhibit the inhibitors, spinal cells may be freed to grow...