'Bionic nerve' hope for patients

British scientists are developing a "bionic nerve" that can bring damaged limbs and organs back to life.

Although research is at an early stage, they hope to be repairing peripheral nerves in patients in as little as four years.

The technology involves transforming fat tissue stem cells into nerve cells within a biodegradable plastic tube.

The tube would be inserted between the two ends of a cut nerve. New nerve fibres growing within it join up with the broken ends to bridge the gap.

Scientists at the University of Manchester have already isolated stem cells from the fat tissue of adult animals and transformed them into fibrous neurons.

They now plan to start extracting stem cells from fat removed from volunteer adult patients.

The next stage will be to grow the stem cells to a later stage of development in the laboratory and insert them into an artificial nerve made from rolled up biodegradable plastic.

Dr Paul Kingham, who is leading the research, said he hoped the treatment would be ready for use in four or five years.

The "bionic" nerve could be used to fix traumatic injury to arms and legs, repair nerves severed during cancer surgery, and and restore life to transplanted organs.

Stem cells are immature cells not yet given a function which can be transformed into different kinds of tissue. Nerve repair is just one of the ways in which scientists hope to use them.

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