Spinal injury patients could walk again thanks to therapy involving blue lightRSS Feed

Scientists in Sweden have made a discovery that has the potential to help patients to walk again after sustaining a spinal cord injury.

Researchers at the medical university Karolinska Institutet modified the genes of a mouse model so that some of their neurons could be activated by blue light.

When blue light was shone on the brainstems and spinal cords of these mice, a walking-like motor activity was produced.

Professor Ole Kiehn, who led the study, said that the new findings will "impact the way in which future studies examining the organisation of neurons involved in walking are performed".

"We hope that our findings can provide insight that eventually will contribute to treatments for spinal cord injured patients," he added.

The research has been published in the scientific journal Nature Neuroscience.

Earlier this month, neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that brain injury and other neurological disorders could be treated by silencing harmful brain activity with different colours of light.

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