When someone suffers a severe spinal cord injury, their nerves are essentially defunct, no longer carrying messages between the brain and the body. Although there are some delicate procedures that can surgically restore some nerve endings, the process proves to be difficult. Now, researchers are seeking ways to restore the nerve endings at the cellular level, and the new five year, $1.7 million grant from National Institutes of Health certainly provides a platform for this extensive research.
Recently, Shelly Sakiyama-Elbert, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis, was awarded the NIH grant and has been using the opportunity to intently look at nerve cells. Her research has been looking to make new connections between the brain and the body, rerouting signals that could potentially restore function. Sakiyama-Elbert is already known for her work in tissue engineering. She blends biology, chemistry, and biomedical engineering for an opportunity to develop biomaterials fro drug delivery and cell transplant, hopefully to succinctly treat peripheral nerve and spinal cord injury.
In her newest research, Dr. Sakiyama-Elbert and a team of scientists are attempting to understand how nerve cells form connections or rewire themselves after a spinal cord injury. She explains her research in great detail below:
“There have been a lot of studies where researchers have shown recovery in partial spinal cord injury models, but no one understands at a cellular level which cells are responsible for rewiring or forming the new connections,” Sakiyama-Elbert said. “If we want to make regeneration more efficient and potentially translatable to humans where it is more challenging, we need to understand what’s actually going on at a cellular level. Once we determine which cells are making connections, we can determine how to transplant more of those cells or try to stimulate tissue-specific stem cells to make those types of neurons and form these types of connections.”
Although there is an ample amount of knowledge surrounding motor neurons, not much can be discerned about how interneurons react or direct their connections with neurons. Sakiyama-Elbert, with the aid of newly developed tools, isolates pure groups of interneurons, in attempts to closely study their behavior. With new technology, she can eliminate the excess cells of cell samples and directly study the interneurons, increasing the speed of her work. Also, with the help of microdevices, she’ll be able to observe interactions between different groups of neurons and cells. Undoubtedly, Sakiyama-Elbert stands on the cusp of medical advancement, and the NIH grant has already proved to be a useful resource for researchers dealing with spinal cord injuries.
Source: Washington University at St. Louis; news-medical.net
