Scientists have discovered a way to repair damaged nerves with stem cells which could give hope to tens of thousands of multiple sclerosis sufferers. The British researchers say their findings could lead to the development of drugs that repair nerves in the brain and spinal cord and potentially reverse some of the symptoms of MS. Almost 100,000 Britons suffer from MS, an incurable disease that causes loss of mobility, sight problems, tiredness and excruciating pain.
It becomes progressively worse and many sufferers are left confined to wheelchairs or mobility scooters. It is caused by damage to myelin, the substance that surrounds all nerves in the brain and spinal cord. This impairs the way messages are transmitted from the brain to the rest of the body.
Women are twice as likely to develop MS than men and around a fifth of patients will have their life-expectancy shortened by the disease, as it leaves them more at risk from infections and blood clots in the lungs.
Now scientists from Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities have discovered a way of stimulating stem cells in the brain to help repair the damaged myelin. In experiments on rats, they found that when these stem cells were injected with a chemical called retinoic acid, the myelin was repaired.
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