From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2004-12-04 17:40:09 UTC
Subject: spinal cord repair research which may have some promise
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-id: <8B51A458-461B-11D9-A814-000A95CD182C@mac.com>
This was work on repairing canine spinal cords in hopes to fine tune
the technique for humans eventually, but since ferrets are mustelids,
and therefore members of the branch which is thought to have most
recently split from the canine branch perhaps this technique *MIGHT*
prove useful for ferrets who suffer a severe spinal injury. (Hind leg
weakness in ferrets is usually NOT due to an injury but instead is a
common result of any serious illness, including very commonly happening
with insulinoma.)
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-health-8-l0&flok=FF-
APO-1501&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20041204%2F0609523730.htm&sc=1501
The work was done in Purdue, Indiana University, and Texas A&M on dogs
which had suffered injuries for which the treating vets held out little
to no hope and whose owners were willing to try an experiment in case
it might cure them offered by a team led by Dr. Richard Borgens, a
neuroscientist at Purdue. The injected compound needed to start being
used within 3 days of the injury. The resulting walk in some of the
68% helped was not normal but was an improvement; there were even some
who returned to normal walking. In the study, 19 paraplegic dogs were
injected with polyethylene glycol, or PEG - a nontoxic liquid polymer
which is related to the poison, antifreeze, which was used in
conjunction with standard surgery and steroids, so perhaps some of the
dogs would have been helped, anyway, thought the assessments beforehand
had been that they would not have been. It appears that PEG might both
bandage and prevent or reduce secondary neural die-off, but what
actually happens is still hypothetical.
Previous work according to this popular press article was on guinea
pigs, including some with spinal cords that were actually severed.
I have NOT read the medical article nor a report in a scientific
reporting newsletter like Science News where the writers tend to be
decently versed in what makes a good study good, so there might be
significant questions about the study which vets used to treating such
injuries in dogs would have or those used to research design would
have. That is always something which needs to be remembered when
encountering reports of studies. Still, there might be some hope here
and it might apply to ferrets with spinal injuries.
Here is the Purdue link:
http://www.vet.purdue.edu/cpr/
and here is a direct link to a website piece on new spinal injury
treatments for dogs which I sadly don't have time to get to until later
today:
http://www.vet.purdue.edu/cpr/sci.html
End of ferrethealth Digest
***********************************