Experimental Treatment Heals Paralyzed Dogs

Experimental Treatment Heals Paralyzed Dogs

CBC News Online
12-4-4


PURDUE, Ind. - Veterinarians have successfully used an experimental treatment to help dogs with spinal cord injuries to walk again.

The paraplegic dogs in the study were between two and eight years old and had severe spinal cord injuries that impaired their neurological function.

Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana treated the dogs with a liquid polymer called polyethylene glycol, or PEG, within 72 hours of suffering a spinal injury.

Humans safely ingest PEG as a component of other medicines.

"Nearly 75 per cent of the [19] dogs we treated with PEG were able to resume a normal life," said Richard Borgens of Purdue's Center for Paralysis Research in a release. "Some healed so well that they could go on as though nothing had happened."

After the dogs received IV injections of PEG, they received standard treatment for spine injury such as removal of stray bone chips and steroids to reduce inflammation. The dogs then received a second injection of PEG.

Since the researchers did not want to tell some dog owners that their pets wouldn't receive a treatment, the team didn't follow a standard placebo control design in the study.

Instead, the doctors relied on historical controls of 24 dogs who received the standard treatment alone in the 1990s.

Patching holes

Two days after treatment, the dogs who received PEG scored higher on tests measuring early recovery of function.

After six weeks, 68 per cent of PEG-treated animals were able to walk, compared to 24 per cent of the controls.

In an earlier study, Borgens and his colleagues found PEG helped to fuse severed nerve fibres in guinea pig spinal cords.

Damage to nerve cells causes their membranes to weaken, impairing their ability to transmit nerve impulses between cells.

Scientists suspect that the polymer repairs damaged cells by patching holes in damaged cell membranes.

Borgens cautioned against assuming the results could help paralysed people. While control of walking takes place in our brains, in dogs the spine is partly responsible, he said.

The study appears in the December issue of the Journal of Neurotrauma.

Copyright © CBC 2004

http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2004/12/03/dog-spine041203.html
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