After severe spinal cord damage, paralyzed rats are able to walk again with the help of a robot to hold them up and stimulate their nerves, a new study shows.

After the rats are trained on the machine for about two months, they gained the ability to control their hind legs -- which had previously been cut off from communicating with the brain -- with enough dexterity to climb stairs and navigate around objects. This control means that the brain has forged new connections to get around the spinal cord injury.

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"We expected they would recover to some degree, but the extent was amazing. They were able to avoid obstacles and walk up stairs," study researcher Janine Heutschi, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland, told LiveScience. "Not only that, but the consistency was really amazing. Every single animal we trained in this robot was able to perform these tasks."

What this means for humans is unclear, but the team is working to adapt the procedure for clinical trials.

Paralyzed Rats

The researchers simulated spinal cord damage in the rats by making two cuts halfway through the spinal cord; the cuts were two vertebra apart and came from opposite sides, so every nerve of the spinal cord was cut. The paralyzed rats can't use their hind legs, but can get around and act like normal rats using their front limbs.

They let the rats heal for a week, and then started their treatment. They were strapped into a robot that supported them on their rear legs, so they couldn't use their front limbs to propel themselves. The harness held them up without pushing them in any one direction, akin to swimming with a life vest.

"It is complexly passive. It just follows the rat in whatever she does," Heutschi said. "It just supports the body weight and balance; otherwise, they would fall to the side. Whenever the rat wants to walk forward, it has to initiate the movement itself."

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Original post:
Paralyzed Rats Regain Strut

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