Breathing returns to paralyzed rats

Combo treatment improves respiration long after initial spinal cord injury

WASHINGTON — Paralyzed rats can breathe a sigh of relief: A new treatment can restore lung function, even a year and a half after a spinal cord injury that takes it away.

When researchers injected a scar tissue–chewing enzyme into the rats’ spinal cords and then dialed down the animals’ oxygen intake, they could breathe easily again, neuroscientist Philippa Warren reported November 17 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.