Spinal cord repair following injury in dogs

Background

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is common in dogs, mainly following intervertebral disc disease or road traffic accidents. In the most severe cases, there is a persistance of complete loss of hind limb locomotion, loss of hindquarter sensation and urinary incontinence, although many dogs recover sufficient function to live normally. Similary, the financial and emotional cost in humans with SCI is a major problem. Despite advances in medical and surgical care for both dogs and humans, the current clinical therapies for SCI are limited to surgery for compressive lesions (disc herniation for example) or fracture repair and supportive care, including rehabilitaion and physical therapy. Unfortunately, these are not sufficiently powerful to restore adequate function to the most severely injured patients.

Hopefully, this rather bleak picture might be improved by recent develoments in SCI research. In recent years, many interventions have been shown to be relistic treatment options for SCI in humans and it is probable that cell transplantaion will be one of the key compenents.

Current front-runners amongst cell transplants are olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs), which are found only in the olfactory system in the nose. OECs have many unique properties and they are able to form a bridge across the damaged spinal cord, helping to promote return of function.

With the support of the Medical Research Council, we have been conducting a phase II clinical trial in dogs with the aim of assessing the functional outcomes following intraspinal OEC injections.

Elemer, a 9 year old Border Collie using a cart to walk prior to surgery. He is our second patient.	X-ray of spine of a dog with a vertebral luxation (orange arrow).