News Story

The team includes clinicians and basic scientists from the Acute Spinal Units at Royal North Shore and Prince of Wales Hospitals, Haematology at St Vincent’s Hospital, the Diabetes Transplant Unit at POWH and the Neurosciences Group in the School of Medical Sciences. The investigators propose to explore the use of adult and embryonic stem cells for repairing spinal cord injuries.

The specific aims of the project are to compare human adult stem cells obtained from bone marrow, cells from the nose (olfactory glial cells) and embryonic stem cells for their therapeutic potential for spinal cord repair, and to find the best combination of therapeutic cells and methods of delivery for improvements in injured spines.

The team’s hypothesis is that human bone marrow stem cells, in combination with olfactory glial cells, will provide both neural repair and regeneration thus resulting in improved functional recovery. Animal and human studies will proceed in parallel, with the goal being a clinical trial in spinal cord patients, if safety and efficacy can be established.

Spinal cord injury continues to be a major cause of reduced quality of life, particularly for young people involved in road-related trauma, falls and sports injuries. About 300 Australians each year sustain a traumatic spinal cord injury, with associated management costs of more than half a million dollars each. Many are left with permanent disabilities and constant dependence for the rest of their lives.

Professor Waite is Head of the Neural Injury Research Unit and Director of Research for UNSW’s School of Medical Sciences. Her most significant contribution in the field of spinal cord injury research has been to show improvements in locomotor function and regeneration in an animal model of spinal cord injury, by transplanting olfactory glial cells.

This advance was crucial because it opened the way for use of olfactory cells from the spinal patients themselves, obtained by simple nasal biopsy. This solved two difficulties, finding an ethically acceptable source of cells and reducing problems of immune rejection. The encouraging results have led to a safety trial of these cells in spinal patients, currently underway at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. The bone marrow stem cells to be trailed here can also be obtained from spinal patients and it is hoped that the combination of stem cells and olfactory glia will lead to further improvements for spinal patients.