Bias erodes translational value in animal spinal cord injury studies

An analysis led by researchers from The Ohio State University College of Medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center found that bias in the design and reporting of spinal cord injury (SCI) studies in animals results in overestimation of the effectiveness of a potential treatment to prevent infections in human patients with SCI. The research findings are published […]

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From spinal cord injury to recovery

Spinal cord injury disconnects communication between the brain and the spinal cord, disrupting control over parts of the body. Studying the mechanisms of recovery, Leuven researcher Aya Takeoka (NERF) found that a specific type of neuronal feedback from sites below the injury plays a crucial role during early recovery and for maintaining regained motor functions. These new basic research findings […]

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Kidney-resident macrophages—a role for healing during acute kidney injury?

During development in the womb, immune cells called macrophages go to the kidneys, and they remain there for life. Understanding the possible healing role for these macrophages after kidney damage may be crucial to helping treat patients who suffer acute kidney injury. Acute kidney injury, or AKI, is a devastating condition that develops in two-thirds of critically ill patients, and […]

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Researchers find the cause of and cure for brain injury associated with gut condition

Using a mouse model of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC)—a potentially fatal condition that causes a premature infant’s gut to suddenly die—researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have uncovered the molecular causes of the condition and its associated brain injury. The discovery enabled the team to combine efforts with colleagues studying brain inflammation and to identify potential drugs that reverse the brain […]

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New approach could jumpstart breathing after spinal cord injury

A research team at the Krembil Research Institute in Toronto has developed an innovative strategy that could help to restore breathing following traumatic spinal cord injury. The team, led by principal investigator Dr. Michael Fehlings—a neurosurgeon/neuroscientist, specialist in spinal cord injury and senior scientist at UHN—published its findings today in the journal Nature in a paper titled “Cervical excitatory neurons […]

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Traumatic brain injury recovery via petri dish

Researchers in the University of Georgia’s Regenerative Bioscience Center have succeeded in reproducing the effects of traumatic brain injury and stimulating recovery in neuron cells grown in a petri dish. This makes them the first known scientific team in the country to do so using stem cell-derived neurons. The procedure, detailed in a new paper in Nature Scientific Reports, has […]

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Traumatic brain injury: Discovery of two molecules could lead to new drug treatments

After 10 years of research, a Rutgers-led team of scientists has identified two molecules that protect nerve cells after a traumatic brain injury and could lead to new drug treatments. The molecules promote full recovery after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in mice, according to the study published online in Neurobiology of Disease. Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of […]

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Synthetic surfactant could ease breathing for patients with lung disease and injury

Human lungs are coated with a substance called surfactant which allows us to breathe easily. When lung surfactant is missing or depleted, which can happen with premature birth or lung injury, breathing becomes difficult. In a collaborative study between Lawson Health Research Institute and Stanford University, scientists have developed and tested a new synthetic surfactant that could lead to improved […]

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A hydrogel restores breathing after spinal cord injury in animal models

One of the most severe outcomes of spinal cord injury from car accidents, sports impacts, or other neck trauma, is losing the ability to control breathing, with patients often requiring artificial ventilation for the rest of their lives. Researchers at Jefferson (Philadelphia University + Thomas Jefferson University) recently tested a hydrogel that releases a nerve-protecting agent at the site of […]

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