StemCell Therapy

By LINDSAY PETERSON | The Tampa Tribune Published: June 06, 2012 Updated: June 06, 2012 - 8:00 AM

The computer screen on the desk at the University of South Florida shows a smattering of multicolored dots.

A mass of green ones clusters at the bottom of the image, which shows the brain of a research rat. But here and there, several of the dots seem to be moving up, migrating to an area of the brain that has been damaged.

These green dots represent stem cells, the kind that exist naturally deep inside the brain and have the ability to transform themselves into healthy brain cells.

Their migration on the image means that doctors may one day be able to treat traumatic brain injury with a simple substance: oxygen.

USF researcher Cesar Borlongan and his colleagues are experimenting with the use of hyperbaric chambers. They're working with rats now, treating them after a brain injury, then examining them for signs of change. But they expect to connect the dots all the way to apply their findings to veterans, stroke victims and others who've suffered brain trauma.

Patients in hyperbaric chambers breathe in oxygen at high pressure, which pushes it into their bloodstream and tissues.

Hyperbaric treatments are used today for crash wounds, burns, even anemia, said Raffaele Pilla, one of the USF researchers on the project.

Research shows it also can help traumatic brain injury sufferers. The federal government still considers it experimental, but the studies "are compelling enough to mandate expedited research trials," said a U.S. Veterans Administration report in 2010.

The USF study is part of a major effort to find treatments for battlefield injuries, Borlongan said. It's created a Veterans Reintegration and Resilience program that pulls together researchers from many disciplines, from brain research to drug development to physical rehabilitation.

See the original post:
Researchers working to repair brain injuries

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