Big Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough: Stem Cells Might be Able to Regrow Myelin Sheaths

This is just the kind of medical breakthrough that I damned the Bush Administration about when it came to their asinine Stem Cell ban. We would have these kind of therapies slowly coming online if not for their stupidity.

The team identified a mechanism essential to regenerating myelin sheaths -- the layers of insulation that protect nerve fibres in the brain -- and showed how it could be used to make the brain's own stem cells undertake this repair.

The loss of myelin in MS sufferers leads to damage to the nerve fibres in the brain that send messages to other parts of the body, leading to symptoms ranging from mild numbness to crippling paralysis.

I love any treatment where the bodies own mechanisms are used to cure disease or regrow something. The body is less likely to reject its own fix-it plan like it would some foreign substance. In any case lets hope this same stem cell technique can be used to grow other parts of the body (my money is on the spinal cord next.)