Spinal injury lawyers are acutely aware of and sensitive to the life-altering impact that serious injuries can have on an individual’s life. Particularly severe spinal injuries can severely limit a person’s ability to move freely. People who experience paralysis are faced with the daunting task of adjusting to life without the use of certain parts of their body. Today, though injury management options and methods of improving long-term function are available, there is no cure for this affliction.
As in many other challenging areas of medicine, however, researchers are hard at work developing methods of treating paralysis, if not curing it entirely. Stem cell therapy, in particular, has generated interest among specialists in the field and spinal injury lawyers.
In May 2017, researchers at the University Health Network and the University of Toronto published a study outlining the “neuroregenerative potential” of cell therapy. Stem cells are able to self-renew and differentiate into various others types of cells, including glial cells which are related to neural function.
The aim of the researchers’ study was to encourage the regrowth of severed nerve fibres where those fibres had been affected by a spinal injury. Regrowth in nerve fibres would lead, theoretically, to restored nerve function.
Though this research is in its preliminary stages, the authors of the University Health Network study appear hopeful, especially about the results of stem cell therapy in combination with other cell treatments.
“While combinatorial treatments using cell-coupling, trophic factors, biomaterials, and rehabilitation may help to improve stem cell effectiveness among a heterogeneous patient population, there is still much research required to optimize their application,” the authors wrote. “It is clear that a lot remains to be understood in the translation of stem cell therapies. However, given the significant strides in laboratory work, we should not lose sight of their potential.”
Early clinical trials showed only modest functional recovery in spinal injury victims, but even slight enhancements in sensation and function are quite significant.
For spinal injury victims and the spinal injury lawyers that represent them, the researchers’ findings are a reason for hope in an otherwise bleak situation. Injury victims who incur full or partial paralysis face a difficult road ahead, which is why Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers works so hard to ensure their access to fair compensation.
If you or a member of your family has suffered a spinal injury, contact the spinal injury lawyers at Neinstein today to set up a free, no-obligation consultation. We can help you along your path to recovery.
Greg Neinstein
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