Source:   Ottawa Citizen; March 25, 2003

Scientists Study Adult Stem Cells to Repair Stroke Damage

Ottawa, Canada -- The brain withers during a stroke, as its blood supply is cut off and oxygen-starved neurons die. Once dead, these delicate cells are gone forever. People lose the ability to walk or talk or even to understand.

Now, a $1.5-million project will link medical researchers across Canada in an unprecedented attempt to learn how the brains of stroke patients may repair themselves with adult stem cells from their own bodies.

Twenty-five scientists in Ottawa and seven other cities hope to train stem cells from diverse parts of the body to travel to the brain's injured area, form themselves into brain cells, connect with other neurons -- and actually think.

If it works, the achievement would be enormous. Fifty thousand Canadians will suffer a stroke this year, and 300,000 are living with the after-effects of an attack on the brain.

This is where an age-old affliction meets a new wave in science.

Stem cells are the body's construction materials. They are unfinished cells held in reserve, to be turned into bone or muscle or other specialized cells later, as the body grows or needs repairs.

But they are also some of the least understood and elusive cells in our body.

The Canadian Stroke Network and the Stem Cell Network are both based at the
University of Ottawa, but link many labs and scientists across the country. This week they're announcing the start of Adult Stem Cells to Treat Stroke, a plan with an ungainly name that undertakes the most delicate work.

Stem cells are a strong area for Canadians: Neural stem cells, for instance, were discovered here in the first place, as were stem cells in the retina of the eye.

Now scientists in Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, London, Halifax and St. John's, Nfld. will try to put those cells to use fixing brain damage in animals. They will use a breathtakingly diverse set of materials -- stem cells that form in the brain along with others formed in the skin and in the bone marrow.

At the University of Calgary, the progress has already begun with rats that have grown back working brain cells -- and regained the ability to move their legs -- after suffering damage similar to a stroke.

Calgary researchers caution the advance is still in its early stages. Yet they are clearly elated.