11 脊髄再生医療
英文]
11 It was a miracle of almost biblical proportions. In 1998, scientists
in Israel revealed that rats whose spinal cords had been severed had
called
walked again after an injection of healing immune cells
macrophages. Their hopes buoyed by enthusiastic media coverage,
= paralysed patients began to dream of taking their own tentative
steps.
12 Five years on, the status of those dreams remains unclear.
Proneuron Biotechnologies, a Los Angeles-based company founded on
the back of the research of lead investigator Michal Schwartz at the
Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, is expected soon to release
the results of an initial trial of the procedure on eight patients with
spinal injuries. Media reports have indicated that some patients have
recovered some feeling and movement, but many researchers do not
expect a repeat of the rodent miracle. Indeed, they claim that at least
one group has since tried, and failed, to reproduce Schwartz's original
animal results.
