Bladder function restored in rats through new clinical trial

Bladder function has been restored in rats in a recent clinical trial.

Yu-Shang Lee from the Cleveland Clinic worked with Jerry Silver from Case Western Reserve Medical School on the work, which included using a chemical to promote cell growth along with a scar-busting enzyme to develop a more hospitable environment.

For a number of decades, scientists have experimented with nerve grafts in an effort to bridging the spinal cord injury site, to recover lost function as a result of spinal cord injury.

Due to spinal cord injury, extensions of nerve cells from the brainstem become disconnected from cells in the spinal cord that control the muscles which squeeze or relax the bladder and open the urethra.

In a natural response to this, a scar is formed at the injury site to reduce the spread of inflammation while deterring the growth of severed nerve fibers.  

Mr Silver stated: “What was especially surprising and exciting was that a subset of nerve cells situated largely in the brainstem could slowly re-grow far down the spinal cord once a permissive environment that allowed them past the site of the scar was provided.

“What endows these particular neurons with such an innately high re-growth capacity is unknown but will be an extremely important area of research in the future.”

He explained that, even though animals did not regain the ability to walk, they recovered a significant measure of urinary control.

The team of researchers delivered the chondroitinase enzyme to disrupt scar formation in tandem with the fibroblast chemical, which promotes cell survival.

After six months, the scientists discovered that rats which received this combination of treatment witnessed a substantial return of bladder function, indicated by measurements of urine output.

Mr Lee commented: “This is the first time that significant bladder function has been restored via nerve regeneration, after a devastating cord injury.”

Posted by Fiona Griffiths