SWEET SPOT: researchers find a suitable location in the spinal cord to inject stem cells

Scientists believe they have found a safer way to inject stem cells into injured spinal cords, avoiding the risk of further injury while accelerating the uptake of regenerative cells

As they do in many areas of medicine, stem cells hold great potential in treating injured spinal cords, but getting them where they need to go is a delicate undertaking. Scientists at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) are now reporting a breakthrough in this area, demonstrating a new injection technique in mice they say can deliver far larger doses of stem cells and avoid some of the dangers of current approaches.

The scientists injected the stem cells in between a protective layer around the spine called the pial membrane and the superficial layers of the spinal cord, a region known as the spinal subpial space.

The research focuses on the use of a type of stem cell known as a neural precursor cell, which can differentiate into different types of neural cells and hold great potential in repairing damaged spines. Currently, these are directly injected into the primary cord of nerve fibers called the spinal parenchyma. You can read more about this study HERE.