Letter to the Editor: “Nature’s Course,” A Clarification

“Nature’s Course: Harvesting Adult Stem Cells for Therapy” (Orbit, May 2005) presents an excellent account of Lisbon pathologist Dr. Carlos Lima’s groundbreaking ‘Olfactory Mucosa’ (OM) transplantation for chronic, severe spinal cord injury (SCI). I offer the following clarification regarding this surgery’s importance-the benefits it offers, the hurdles it aims to overcome, and future needs of SCI research.

The chronic SCI injury site, or “lesion,” contains molecules that many researchers believe are the most inhibitory, most immediate roadblocks to reversing SCI. Because OM is a ‘natural scaffolding’ that supports neural regeneration throughout our lives, Dr. Lima uses this tissue to serve its natural purpose, to provide broken axons with a bridge to cross the lesion.

Olfactory Mucosa contains neural stem cells, progenitors, and support cells in numbers designed to maintain the nerves of the olfactory system-not to rebuild the spinal cord. Dr. Lima does not presently harvest, grow, and reintroduce additional cells to those naturally found in OM. Therefore his clinical results indicate that OM may serve as a safe and effective means of bridging the SCI injury site. But its potential in concert with greater numbers of stem cells (or support cells) has yet to be determined. Lima’s use of OM to bridge the lesion is only the first step to curing severe, chronic SCI-but it’s a huge one.

The next challenge for researchers is to combine this valuable tool with techniques that rescue chronically atrophied and dysfunctional neurons-that induce existing axons to grow, or new axons to sprout and cross the mucosa bridge-that assist axons (that cross the lesion) to continue to grow until new connections are made-and that assist the brain to find and use these new connections.

I thank Drs. Carlos Lima, Jean Peduzzi-Nelson, and Steve Hinderer for their valuable, ongoing work.

James Kelly
Manitou Springs, Colorado.

James Kelly is an advocate for research leading to a cure for SCI

Letters to the Editor may be sent by e-mail to orbit@unitedspinal.org, or to Orbit Editor, United Spinal Association, 75-20 Jackson Heights, NY 11370-1177. Please keep letters to 300 words or fewer. Letters may be edited for clarity or space.