Scientist has developed a gel that helps brains recover from traumatic injuries. It has the potential in treat head injuries suffered in combat, car accident, falls, or gunshot wounds. Developed by Dr. Ning Zhang at Clemson University in South Carolina, the gel is infected in liquid from at the site of injury and stimulates of stem cells there.
Brain injuries are particularly hard to repair, since injured tissues swell up and can cause additional damage to the cells. So far, treatments have tried to limit this secondary damage by lowering the temperature or relieving the pressure at the site of injury. However, these techniques are often not very effective.
More recently, Scientist have considered transplanting donor brain cells into the wound to repair damage tissue. This method has so far had limited results when treating brain injuries. The donor cells often fail to grow or stimulates repair at the injury site, possibly because of the inflammation and scarring present there. The injuries site also typically has very limited blood supply and connective tissue, which might prevent donor cells from getting the nutrients they repair.
Dr. Zhang’s gel, however, can be loaded with different chemicals to stimulate various biological processes at the site of injury. In previous research done by rats, she was able to use the gel to help re-establish full blood supply at the site of the brain injury. This could help create a better environment for donor cells.
In the follow-up study, Dr. Zhang loaded the gel with immatures stem cells, as well as the chemicals they needed to develop into full-fledged adult brain cell. When rats with severe brain injuries were treated with this mixture for eight weeks, they showed signs of significant recovery.
The new gel could treat patients at varying stages following injury, and is expected to be ready for testing in humans in about three years.
This new discovery has a big impact to us, a gel that can cure any kind of brain injuries. They limit it because the new discovery has not proven. They try different methods and processes. But the results are limited. So due to it they try it to others.
They try it to the rats. And after eight weeks, they showed sign a significant recovery. However, Rats is different from humans. So how they will do the processes if they will try it to humans? But they cannot tell because it will take a long process to reach their goal. To try it to humans and to have a better result.
By: Mary Charlotte R. Bonus | T-III | Mariveles National High School-Cabcaben
