Ga Tech Researchers Make Headway in Treating Spinal Cord Injuries ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - Scar tissue serves an important function by limiting the size of a wound.
But in spinal cord injuries, scar tissue gets in the way of nerve fibers trying to regenerate. Now, a discovery at Georgia Tech offers promise to those recovering from spinal cord injuries. WABE's Jim Burress explains.

There's an enzyme that eats away at scar tissue. But that enzyme doesn't work well at normal body temperatures.

Now, a team headed by Georgia Tech biomedical engineering professor Ravi Bellamkonda may have solved that problem. The answer involves mixing the enzyme with a type of sugar then suspending it in a gel:

"With a single injection it lasts for about six weeks and the scar is degraded and the nerves are able to grow back potentially."

and that's a big "potentially." This discovery opens one door, but there are still many elusive questions:

"After they grow back, will they find the neurons they were originally connected to? Will the brain relearn to use those neurons then to do the functional things?"

The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Jim Burress, WABE News.
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