Collagen implants to promote regeneration of the adult rat spinal cord

Over 250,000 people in the United States currently live with a spinal cord injury and approximately 11,000 new cases occur every year. People with spinal cord injuries experience a significant reduction in quality of life due to the many problems that arise from damage to the spinal cord including paralysis and loss of sensation below the location of injury, loss of bowel and bladder function, loss of sexual function, and impaired respiration. Despite considerable ongoing research in the area of nerve regeneration by various institutions, satisfactory treatment for spinal cord injury has not yet been discovered. Previous studies have had considerable success in facilitating the regeneration of severed peripheral nerves through the use of collagen based implants used to bridge the resulting gap between the severed nerve stumps. The current study aims to apply this same regenerative approach to a defect created in the spinal cord of adult rats. The objective is to evaluate the efficacy of three different collagen implants toward the regeneration of the spinal cord. The experimental spinal cord injury was a complete transection at T7 and T9 and the removal of the spinal cord segment between the two transections, creating a 5 mm gap.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Cholas, Rahmatullah H. (Rahmatullah Hujjat)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Myron Spector.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/35658

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/35658