INJECTING stem cells into patients may not be the only way to repair nerve
damage. Cancerous nerve cells may do the same job, and researchers have already
used them to heal spinal lesions in rats.
Jo Velardo, a neurobiologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville,
says tumour cells have some of the same potential as stem cells in that they
lose their identity, can multiply rapidly, and can be coerced into evolving into
other tissues. “They get a bad rap because they start off as a cancer cell,” she
says.
Velardo and her colleagues gave rats spinal injuries in…
