Spinal cord injury success from folate therapyRSS Feed

A treatment for spinal cord injuries could involve the vitamin folate being used to stimulate nerve growth, according to a new study.

The US National Institutes of Health, a federal health and medicine research agency comprising 27 centres, noted success in the spinal cord nerve regrowth in rats with the folate treatment.

The study found that folate stimulated a process called DNA methylation - a natural biomechanical process of regeneration - after recognising the role of the vitamin in foetal spinal development.

Dr Bermans Iskandar, who was involved in the study, said: "Interestingly, the more folate we gave, the more regrowth we saw, eventually achieving almost a tenfold increase in axonal regeneration."

Increasing the dosage further resulted in reduce benefits but no ill effects or cell damage, he explained.

He went on to explain that the research could be a vital breakthrough in the treatment of spinal cord injuries.

"Injuring the spinal cord seems to enhance its ability to receive folate in its cells," he explained.

The research comes in the wake of a study by scientists from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine into possible stem cell treatments for spinal injury sufferers.

Serious Law, leading spinal cord injury solicitors

Posted by Timothy Walters

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