[ti:German Scientists Make Mice Walk Again]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]更多听力请访问21VOA.COM
[00:00.04]German researchers have found a way
[00:04.12]to regrow nerves of mice that could not walk,
[00:09.96]permitting them to walk again.
[00:13.84]The mice had been paralyzed
[00:16.48]because of injuries to their spinal cords.
[00:20.88]The researchers used a designer protein injected into the brain.
[00:27.64]It recreates a link in the brain that scientists had always believed
[00:33.72]could not be repaired once broken.
[00:37.56]Spinal cord injuries in humans are often
[00:42.00]caused by sports or car accidents.
[00:45.64]The injuries leave them paralyzed because some of the nerves
[00:50.88]that move information between muscles and the brain
[00:55.20]are not able to grow back.
[00:58.00]The researchers from Ruhr University Bochum
[01:03.28]were able to cause the paralyzed mice's nerve cells
[01:08.64]to grow back using the designer protein.
[01:13.04]The special thing about the protein is not only
[01:17.84]that it is used to cause the damaged nerve cells to regrow,
[01:23.52]"but that it is also carried further (through the brain),"
[01:28.28]the team's leader Dietmar Fischer told Reuters.
[01:33.60]The nerve cells regrow and that is "the reason
[01:37.64]why the mice can walk again," he said.
[01:41.16]The paralyzed mice that received the treatment
[01:45.24]started walking after two or three weeks, he said.
[01:49.60]The treatment involves injecting genetic information
[01:54.00]into the brain to make the protein,
[01:57.44]called hyper-interleukin-6, the university's website reported.
[02:05.80]The team is investigating if the treatment can be improved.
[02:10.56]"We also have to see if our method works on larger mammals.
[02:16.08]We would think of pigs, dogs or primates,
[02:20.32]for example," Fischer said.
[02:22.84]If they are successful working with larger mammals,
[02:27.16]then the scientists could try the treatment for humans.
[02:31.80]That, however, "will certainly take many, many years," he said.
[02:38.12]I'm Susan Shand. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM