AUSTIN -- University of Texas researchers could be on the right track to cure paralysis. This truly remarkable research is allowing lab rats to almost fully recover from peripheral nerve surgery in a matter of days and weeks, instead of months or years. The key is something that many of us have in our homes or garages already.

As a standout defensive lineman for the Texas Longhorns and the Detroit Lions, Doug English got more than his share of cheers. Today, as the head of the Lone Star Paralysis Foundation, he's cheering loudest for a team of lab rats at UT.

"When you sever a nerve, that is it," said English, who has undergone neck surgery. "The distal end goes away. The best your are going to get is a slow nerve growth coming back, if you get that. To be able to re-energize the distal end of a nerve has never been done."

But it's being done on the UT campus under the watchful eye of Dr. George Bittner, a professor of Neurobiology at UT. For almost four decades, Bittner has studied rats that have had their peripheral nerves cut.

"All that motor control and sensory sensation is lost," said Bittner.

Bittner says whether it is rats or humans, when peripheral nerves are cut the best procedures today may only restore 10-20 percent of nerve function over a period of months or years.

"Our procedure, within a couple of weeks, restores in rats 60-80 percent of the lost function," said Bittner.

Bittner says the procedure saturates the two separate, severed cell membranes with various solutions. He says the most important is PEG.

"Polyethylene glycol is essentially long, chain antifreeze," said Bittner.

That is right. Antifreeze helps induce the two cut ends to flow into each other like two soap bubbles becoming one.

"It is exciting because it has not been done," said English.

English has witnessed the peripheral nerve recovery of rats at UT. He's hoping soon this same process can be used to treat spinal cord injuries.

"Baby steps is the nature of the business," said English. "Right now we are in mammals. We are going to move it right from the sciatic nerve and peripheral nerve into the spinal cord and keep pushing until we go all the way."

Dr. Bittner says currently the peripheral nerve recovery surgery has been performed on rats, rabbits and guinea pigs. He says it is quite possible, clinical trials on humans could begin in a couple of years.

by JIM BERGAMO / KVUE News and photojournalist Michael Moore
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