Step training with severely damaged spinal cord

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Reply: Step training with severely damaged spinal cord

Sir, In general, we agree with the comments by Drs Wernig related to our recent publication (Kubasak et al., 2008) that reported improved locomotor function after olfactory ensheathing glia (OEG) implantation. We, however, would like to expand upon several points. If future rodent studies of implanted OEG combined with step training also report locomotor recovery after a complete spinal cord tr...

Trainer variability during step training after spinal cord injury: Implications for robotic gait-training device design.

Robotic devices are being developed to automate repetitive aspects of walking retraining after neurological injuries, in part because they might improve the consistency and quality of training. However, it is unclear how inconsistent manual training actually is or whether stepping quality depends strongly on the trainers' manual skill. The objective of this study was to quantify trainer variabi...

Effects of Biodegradable Polymers on the Rat's Damaged Spinal Cord Neural Membranes

     The overall goal of this study was to identify the appropriate biomaterials able to facilitate the regeneration in rat's injured adult spinal cord. Acute damage to axons is manifested as a breach in their membranes, ionexchange distortion across the compromised region, local depolarization and even conduction block. It would be of particular importance to interrupt the progress of events h...

The quest to repair the damaged spinal cord.

Spinal cord injuries devastate the lives of those affected. Normally, acute injury leads to chronic injury in the spinal cord, although this has a variable impact on normal sensory and motor functions. Currently the only drug used to treat acute spinal cord injury is methyl-prednisolone, administered in order to prevent secondary inflammatory neural damage. Thus, it is time that alternative and...

Effects of step training on the kidneys following spinal cord injury in rats