Washington, Sep 18 (ANI): A jab of biomaterial gel into a spinal cord injury site may significantly improve healing, according to researchers at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center.
Dr. Mark Preul and Dr. Alyssa Panitch have found in a study that injection of an engineered hydrogel made up mainly of hyaluronic acid (a naturally-occurring body substance) into the spinal cord injury site decreases scarring, and promotes a realignment of the spinal cord fibres around the injury site.
The hyaluronic acid, which forms a scaffold-like configuration may help to structurally stabilize the spinal cord injury site.
The researchers traced cells in the brain stem after injury, and found much higher levels in the hydrogel treated animals as compared to animals that did not receive the treatment, and approached nearly normal levels.
Treated animals had higher functional scores than their non-treated counterparts.
“Spinal cord injury is devastating to civilian and military populations – especially to the young. There has been little progress toward paradigms of regeneration and few results that show real, sustained functional recovery. We’ve been so pre-occupied with regeneration, but that is a highly complicated and difficult to define goal. This project is a synergy of neurosurgeons and bioengineers that attempts repair of the SCI lesion cavity using a tissue-engineering biomaterials approach,” says Preul.
He added that the team aimed at finding ways to structurally allow the body to better heal itself.
“In this project we did not add anything to the hyaluronic acid. It may be that adding growth factors or cells into the gel matrix may allow even better results,” he said.
Preul said that the results show “we may be on a practical path that can give hope to the many people who suffer this sort of injury.”
The work was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons in San Diego where it won the Synthes Prize for Spine Research. (ANI)
UPDATE 1-Geithner: System health linked to bank paybacks-WSJ
adds interview comments, Treasury comments on stock swaps)
WASHINGTON, April 20 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he would consider the health of the financial system and the flow of credit in deciding whether banks can repay bailout funds from the government, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
In an interview published on its website, the newspaper said Geithner indicated the health of individual banks would not be the sole criterion for returning government funds.
“We want to make sure that the financial system is not just stable, but also not inducing a deeper contraction in economic activity. We want to have enough capital that it’s going to be able to support recovery,” Geithner told the Journal.
Some large banks, including Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N) and J.P. Morgan Chase and Co (JPM.N) have said they want to repay the government, but some fear that this would highlight difficulties at institutions that are deemed by financial regulator stress tests as needing more capital.
Geithner’s comments echoed those of some other Obama administration officials, including White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers, who said on Sunday the administration wants banks to repay funds that came from taxpayers, but not in ways “that will put themselves right back in trouble and leaving themselves with adequate capital.”
Geither told the Journal he has tried to make a simple case to lawmakers and others why taxpayer funds were needed to aid the financial system.
“You can’t have economic recovery without a financial system,” Geithner told the Journal. “Without a financial system you have no credit, which means higher unemployment, lower production capacity and a higher number of failing institutions.”
Geithner also said he would reiterate the need for a “strong and broad global consensus on stimulus, financial repair and quick deployment of resources to emerging economies” later this week when Group of Seven finance ministers meet in Washington.
EQUITY CONVERSIONS AN OPTION
Also on Monday, a Treasury spokesperson said converting the government’s existing preferred stock investments in banks to common equity was being considered as one of several options that would enable the U.S. Treasury to shore up bank balance sheets after the stress test results are disclosed May 4. However, the spokesperson added no decisions have been made.
Other options include encouraging banks to raise private capital, purchasing new preferred shares in them that are convertible into common equity, and asking them to sell troubled assets into a new public-private partnership program.
“We have not endorsed one option over another, all of the those options have been on the table from the beginning and the needs of each bank will determine what the best approach is for each bank,” the spokesperson said.
Conversion of preferred shares to common equity could increase a bank’s capital cushion without using new taxpayer cash, amid dwindling resources from the $700 billion U.S. financial bailout fund.
This was a key part of the latest rescue package for Citigroup (C.N) in February, in which the government agreed to convert up to $25 billion in preferred shares to common stock. The move increased tangible common equity, which bank regulators see as the strongest form of capital — effectively the cushion left after all creditors and preferred shareholders have been paid off.
However, such moves would increase repayment and dilution risks for taxpayers, subordinating them to the same status as other common shareholders. (Reporting by David Lawder, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)