Wissenschaftler haben kleine menschliche Rückenmarksarten gezüchtet und diese dann in Mausmodellen nach einer Verletzung reparieren lassen | Wissenschaftler haben einen großen Schritt zur Behandlung von Rückenmarksverletzungen gemacht, die zu Lähmungen führen.

>Scientists have taken a major step toward treating spinal cord injuries that cause paralysis.

>In lab dishes, [researchers](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-025-01606-2) at Northwestern University grew tiny organoids of the human spinal cord. Then, they injured the samples and administered a treatment that helped the tissue repair and regenerate.

>“We decided to develop two different injury models in a human spinal cord organoid and test our therapy to see if the results resembled what we previously saw in the animal model,“ biomedical engineer Samuel Stupp says.

>“After applying our therapy, the glial scar faded significantly to become barely detectable, and we saw neurites growing, resembling the axon regeneration we saw in animals. This is validation that our therapy has a good chance of working in humans.“

>Spinal cord injuries often lead to paralysis because damaged nerve cells in the central nervous system regenerate poorly. This is partly due to suppression mechanisms that impede the growth of new axons and the emergence of scar tissue that is difficult for nerve fibers to penetrate.

>In previous work, Stupp and his team developed a material called IKVAV-PA that they used to reverse paralysis in mice with severe spinal cord injury. The key to this treatment is supramolecular therapeutic peptides – nicknamed ‚dancing‘ molecules – that can match the motion of the receptors on nerve cells to coax axon regrowth.