A Brilliant Technology
In 2008, 250,000 Americans were spinal cord injured and for 92% of them it was caused by an accident.10 Knowing that they can possibly be victims of such misfortunes, scientists have put lots of effort to develop new technologies to help people who are paraplegic and quadriplegic. In the last decade, they’ve fine tuned a new technology involving stem cells. Stem cells hold a great potential for the treatment of spinal cord injuries. However, researchers still have lots of problems to solve related to this new discovery. Progenitor cells can regenerate part of a damaged spinal cord and that’s why comes with it loads of positives effects. Unfortunately, neurosurgeons foresee problems regarding this scientific breakthrough. Thus, stem cell technology is only one of the possibilities offered to people with a spinal cord tear.
First, having the possibility to replace injured tissue, progenitor cells will change forever the way paraplegic anticipate their future. The spinal cord is defined as, “a major part of the central nervous system which conducts sensory and motor nerve impulses to and from the brain”1. Of course, that means the spinal cord is an essential part of the human body. Accordingly, fractures of the vertebrae, which then crush the axons, can cause lots of really serious problems to a person. For example, loss of sensation and motor function below the level of injury, loss of sexual function, incontinence problem, etc. 2 The point is that a spinal cord laceration can ruin a person’s life, and moreover, no one is sheltered from it. That’s why a new cure, like progenitor cell implantation, which would enable people to walk again, is a considerable scientific discovery. Stem cells are, “cells that have the potential to transform into multiple types of cells and are capable of regenerating or repairing damage”.3 Stem cell treatment consists in doing an injection of embryonic cells at the injury site in the spinal cord or in the