Seattle Injury Lawyer Blog
A new discovery in medical research could help patients in Washington with traumatic brain injuries. Researchers from the University of Maryland and the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System have found a way to deliver stem cells to injured areas of the brain using a magnetic field. Although the method has only been tested on rats, researchers believe magnetic cell targeting is very promising.
Previously, medical researchers had been attempting to treat traumatic brain injuries using stem cell therapy without magnets. The problems they had using stem cell therapy on the central nervous system was that the stem cells did not always reach the injured parts of the brain, and there was a risk of intracranial hemorrhage.
Researchers are now labeling human neural progenitor cells with iron-oxide nanoparticles and using a magnetic field to guide them towards injury sites in the brain. The magnetic field allows scientists to specifically target the areas that they want the stem cells to go towards. There are still a lot of important questions that haven’t been answered in the research. Scientists do not know what will happen to the stem cells once the magnetic field is removed, and they do not know what effect stronger magnetic fields could have on the stem cells.
A person who is suffering from a serious brain injury right now may not be able to benefit from new treatment methods for many years. In the meantime, those with brain damage may suffer from a significant drop in income as they lose the cognitive abilities that they once had. A lawyer may be able to help a person in this situation to pursue a claim for financial compensation from any parties whose negligent actions caused the injury.