Word: spinal
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...Percentage the National Institutes of Health increased its spending on spinal-cord injuries since Christopher Reeve's accident...
...Ratio of people suffering from spinal-cord injuries to people suffering from multiple sclerosis...
...list goes on to include virtually any disorder that involves the loss of normal cells: stroke, muscular dystrophy, spinal-cord injury, kidney or liver disease, blindness caused by degeneration of the retina. Stem cells could also provide drug companies with a limitless supply of normal human tissues to use in testing the toxicity of new drugs. "This is a fairly unique resource," says Johns Hopkins team leader John Gearhart, in a masterpiece of understatement...
...another small biotech firm has stepped up to the plate with a possible use for barnyard-animal DNA. But Alexion Pharmaceuticals' research, backed up by Yale's School of Medicine, is just a little more credible -- if no less fantastic. Cells from genetically altered pigs have helped heal spinal cord injuries in lab rats, and may do the same for humans -- offering a tiny ray of hope to millions of paralyzed people around the world...
...Specially enhanced to resist rejection by the host body, the nerve cells -- taken from the pig's snout, no less -- not only restored the spine's protective sheath, but actually caused the spinal cord to regenerate itself. Researchers have already started testing the technique on monkeys; early results have been positive. Soon, they expect to move on to humans. But Alexion CEO Dr. Leonard Bell sounded a note of caution: "The best-case scenario is that patients may expect to become somewhat more independent in their everyday living but maybe not entirely independent," he said. Realistic expectations in cell technology...