New Stem Cell Research Advancements: The Dream of Christopher Reeve Grows Closer

The late actor Christopher Reeve was a tireless advocate of stem cell research in the last decade of his life. Paralyzed from the neck down by a horseback riding accident in 1995, Reeve dedicated his considerable talents and impressive network of powerful allies to attempt to drive forward stem cell research into the reparation of spinal cord injuries and disorders. Despite his continued acting and directing, advocacy of stem cell research became his primary professional and political focus until his death from heart attack in October 2004, nearly ten years after the accident that paralyzed him.

Reeve held an absolute, unwavering belief that the answers to irreversible spinal cord damage lay in the utilization of this controversial potential therapy. He was undaunted by his own physical limitations when fighting for enhancement of government funding into stem cell research, rather, he used his condition as an extremely effective tool when presenting his case to legislative bodies, funding organizations, and media outlets.

Is it possible that the fruits of the efforts of Christopher Reeve, and those working with him to keep stem cell research on the front burners of scientific discovery and legislative calendars, are finally finding themselves ready to be collected? Perhaps not quite, but this week there is evidence that seeds have at long last been planted that may soon grow into the trees of knowledge that may bare those fruits. And, with a little luck, those trees may grow swiftly.

Exciting new evidence about the viability of stem cell therapy for the treatment of patients living with paralysis has just been published by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School. In a study published in Annals of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Neurological Association, researchers led by Dr. Douglas Kerr studied rats that had been paralyzed and then injected with embryonic stem cells from mice. The resulting study showed that 11 of the 15 mice treated with the therapy regained significant mobility and motor function in the paralyzed limbs.