X-RAYS AND SPINAL CORD HEALING

[GOODEN@VMS.OCOM.OKSTATE.EDU]

	Isn't radiation great?!  What a wonderful tool to benefit mankind.  

	Today the AP (Washington) carried a story that said x-rays applied 
at the right time and in the right dose may allow some healing of severed 
spinal cords according to laboratory research with rats.  

	Spinal cord injuries often result in total paralysis of limbs.  
Researchers say this occurs because nerve fibers in the central nervous 
system, which includes the spinal cord, do not regenerate as do most nerve 
tissue elsewhere in the body.  

	This may be due to the appearance of reactive astrocyte cells 
during this regenerative process.  In rats it appears x-rays can prevent 
the formation of these cells thereby promoting healing.  Hopefully this 
research will lead to improvements in human spinal cord healing and the 
beneficial uses of radiation in general.  


David S. Gooden, Ph.D., J.D. 
Director, Biomedical Physics 
Saint Francis Hospital 
Tulsa, OK  74136 
(918) 494-1444 
gooden@vms.ocom.okstate.edu