Israel Makes Progress in Healing Injured Spines

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http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010614/sc/health_israel_spine_dc_1.html

Thursday June 14 9:23 AM ET

Israel Makes Progress in Healing Injured Spines

By Goldin

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli doctors said on Thursday a clinical trial on

paraplegics had shown success at repairing severed spinal cords and

restoring movement to paralyzed people.

Holley, an 18-year-old American girl, underwent the treatment in

Israel last year after she was left a paraplegic following a car accident.

Twelve months later, her doctor said, she has regained movement in her toes

and legs and has bladder control, improving her quality of life and

reducing chances of a urinal infection that is a common cause of death

among paraplegics.

Holley became the first person to undergo the treatment -- previously

tested only on rats -- after she crushed two vertebrae and severely damaged

her spinal cord in a car accident in the United States.

``She couldn't move. She couldn't feel anything,'' said Dr. Valentin Fulga,

whose company, Proneuron Biotechnologies (Israel) Ltd, developed the

treatment.

He said Holley began regaining sensation several months after white blood

cells called macrophages were injected into her spinal cord at Tel Hashomer

hospital near Tel Aviv last July.

The body uses macrophages to heal wounds and regenerate tissues.

``She recovered very significant motor function in her legs, although she

is not yet walking,'' Fulga said.

Holley's father came across the Proneuron Web site offering to bring

paraplegics to Israel for the experimental treatment.

Fulga wanted, in first-stage trials, to test the method on at least five

more people who had ``no sensation, no motor function below the site of the

injury.''

BREAKTHROUGH ON NERVE DAMAGE

The treatment is based on research by Professor Michal Schwartz from

Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science, who found that by injecting treated

macrophages in rats she was able to restore nerve function in about 60

percent of cases.

Fulga said the scarcity of macrophages in the central nervous system was

the main reason severe spinal injuries were permanent.

He said Schwartz's research and the initial trials showed that macrophages

activated to treat wounds and injected in the spinal column slowly began to

repair nerve fibers.

Dr. Nachson Kenoller, a neurosurgeon who has performed the procedure on

three people, said the spinal cord and brain had been considered areas

where regeneration was impossible.

``We are talking about regeneration of the spinal cord, which has never

been recorded in the past,'' Kenoller told Reuters.