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Advances in rehabilitation and regeneration in spinal cord injur
Publication date: June 2008
Researchers and professionals specialised in spinal cord injury and neurorehabilitation will meet up on the 5th and 6th of June in the 2nd Symposium of the Neuroscience Institute of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), which will be held within the setting of the 20th Guttmann Institute Workshops during the Avante show. Advances in basic research into the regeneration of the nervous system, new strategies for rehabilitation of the spinal cord and for the application of robotics and neuroprotheses will be presented.
Spinal Cord Injury and its severe physical, personal and social consequences are still one of the biggest challenges for the scientific community that is searching for the best strategies both for its cure, through basic research, and to reduce, through clinical research, the adverse effects on people who suffer from it. There are currently over 250,000 affected people in the European Union with approximately 10,000 new cases every year.
The symposium is divided into four subject blocks which will present the results of experiments being carried out in Europe and North America in order to improve regeneration in spinal cord in jury and its future cure.
The first spotlights research into mechanisms for the regeneration of the nervous system, advances in growth of nerve fibres and their connections, glial cell transplant and gene therapy to boost repair of the damaged peripheral and central nervous system. Wagih El Masri Consultant Surgeon in Spinal Injuries at the Midland Centre of Spinal Injuries in Oswestry (United Kingdom) and President of the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCOS), will open the symposium with the conference on natural recovery of neural functions following traumatic spinal injuries.
The second will cover clinical research into regeneration in spinal cord injury: inhibition using Nogo (a protein which prevents growth of nerve fibres) to enhance regeneration in spinal cord injury; implantation of stem cells and biomaterials; and use of neural stem cell lines for drug discovery and translational research.
Plasticity and neuronal rehabilitation in spinal cord injury and the application of robotics and neuroprosetheses will be the other two topics on the second day of the symposium.
Spinal cord injury can be caused by trauma or a congenital disease (spina bifida). The consequences are more or less serious depending on whether the injury is complete or partial and of the extent: tetraplegia -loss of or reduced sensitivity or mobility of all four limbs and of the whole torso; or paraplegia -lack of sensitivity or total or partial paralysis of the lower limbs and of the part of the torso below the injury. There is currently no cure for spinal cord injury, but new surgical and technological procedures have arisen which can help to improve the quality of life of those affected. As it stands today, integral rehabilitation in a specialised centre is the only possible alternative for patients.
Barcelona, June 2008
Attached archives: XX Institut Guttmann Workshops - Spinal cord injury: Regeneration and Rehabilitation
Head of press: Maria Dolors Herranzº
Contact telephoneo: 93 233 25 41
Email address: mdherranz@firabcn.es