Doug Kerr, cont. and introducing Stephen Davies

Discussing a neurobiological change that happened with a group of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, in which people who did FES bikes had changed

Sue is telling us that for 9 years since her injury she hadn't needed to use deodorant, but that since using her FES bike for the last several months, suddenly she needs it again.

(Wise is at the next table laughing . . . )

Sue is talking about Stephen Davies, whose title slide is up.

His researchers supported by David Van Wagener, the Lone Star Paralysis Foundation, the NINDS, CDRPF, NY state dept of health . . .

His beautiful astrocyte image is up while he give the agenda for this talk.

sci anatomy and basic concepts, factors preventing nerve fiber regeneration, the right astricytes, making gains and avoiding pains, and finally, what about chronics.

very high quality images, and great, simple to understand. He's saying that most axons descend and ascen the spinal cord in the white matter. you can get a spinal cord injury in the gray matter at the center of the cord and not lose function, but an injury that goes to the white matter destroys function.

the axons that are running up and down through the white matter actually send out little sidebars, into the gray matter, which is where the neurons actually sit. and we know that there are axons further out in the whte matter, not injured, that can send new connections into the gray matter . . . this is plasticity.

okay.

so, in a forming human being (in utero), an axon can regenerate itself, but after birth that's no longer possible.

why?

some theories:
old neurons just lose their ability
they lack growth support
myelin itself is inhibitory to growth
scar tissue is a physical and molecular barrier

slide shows and experimental spinal cord injury model

they made a lesion at c1/c2 in an adult rat and transplant adult sensory neurons, very very gently. they did fine -- but not when myelin was present.

talking about scar tissue as a barrier to axon regeneration

there's trauma and inflammation, severing of axons, loss of support cells, formation of inhibitory scar tissue.

What is those bloody freaking scars? (my words, not his)
CS Poteoglycans, liek kenurcan, brevican, NG2, . .. there are multiple inhibitory molecules . ..

what are come cell based sci therapies?

there are lots of non central nervous system cell types, like schwann cells, fibroblasts, olfactory ensheating cells, macrophages, embryonic and adult stem cells, marrow stromal cells, umbilical cord cells

and, there are cells of central nervous system origin . . . which ones are right? some astrocytes form scar tissue, and we think that 70% of all the cells in the cns are strocytes.

here's the progression . .. embronic stem cel to neuroepithelial stem cell to glial restricted precursor which can become either astrocytes or ologodendrocytes

but there are two kinds of astrocytes -- GDA bmp is the name of the one that works.

gotta say, it's very fun to listen to Stephen Davies talk. He has a very tony british accent, and way of communicating excitemnt and even wonder about his lab results. ("It's really quite amazing . . . "

Image up now that shows the GDA bmp got 60% of axons to grow across an injury site in 8 days -- the previous record was 5% after 3 months.

wow.

what happens if you but the undifferentiated stem cells into an injured cord? they turn into scar tissue.

people, this is why you don't want to take a chance on letting someone put stem cells into your cord.

they also tried the other kind of astrocytes, and the result of that was no sprouting across the injury.

what about functional recovery? they gave the rats c3/c4 injuries and make them walk across a little grid.

there were 3 sets of 9 animals -- some got no treatment, some got the wrong kind of astrocytes, and some got the bmp's -- the latter group were back to normal after 9 days.

oh, gak, he's saying that damaged neurons in the cord also means that there's damage to their former connections in the brain.

but, the good news is that bmp cells protect against that.

some potential benefits of transplangint the righ tastrocytes:
metabolic support for neurons, maitainence of of the blood spinal cord barrier, regulation of spinal blood flow, beidge of sci, regulation of oligodendrcyte development and prmotion of remyelination of axons, promotion of synapse formation and regulation of growth of dendritic spins, transmittion of calcium wave signals, reugulation of synapse activity

Stephen is the king of astrocytes.

And guess what? using the wrong kind of astrocytes leads to pain. The bmp astrocytes actually reduced pain, while the other kind raised it substantially.

Adult scar tissue astrocytes may be responsible for neuropathic pain.

Ah, on to decorin.

Decorin, Stephen has told us in the past, decreases the level of the proteins that suppress axon growth. it also breaks down scar tissue, which is great news for chronic.

talking about a rat 9 months after injury, showing a very depressing picture of damage far away from the injury site . . . so the question is, can decorin help?

adult neurons don't grow on myelin, and they don't grow on scar. but with decorin, wowza.

decorin boosts the ability of neurons to grow.

Stephen's agenda is still to get bmp and decorin together, and he's in the process of testing that combination.

"MY LAB IS NOW COMMITTED TO HEALING CHRONIC SCI."