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Until relatively recently, human spinal cord injury (SCI) represented a neurological situation with devastating and irreversible consequences for the affected individual. This special issue of The New Anatomist ( The Anatomical Record Part B, Vol. 271, No.1, March 2003) focuses on recent developments in the SCI research field that have significant therapeutic potential: the use of a specialized glial cell, the olfactory ensheathing cell (OEC), as transplant material to promote regeneration of damaged nerve fibers.

Anatomy as a scientific discipline has played a pioneering role in the use of these cells in developing potential therapies for SCI. Four of the five articles are derived from a symposium, “Olfactory ensheathing cells: therapeutic potential in spinal cord injury,” organized by Guest Editor Kathryn J. Jones and sponsored by the American Association of Anatomists at the Experimental Biology 2002 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA. The authors are recognized leaders in the field of basic research in spinal cord regeneration. Also, a compelling view of SCI from the clinician's perspective frames the basic research advances in a clinical context.

These articles are provided free online by Wiley-Liss, Inc., the publishers of The Anatomical Record/The New Anatomist as a service to the research community.

Page updated February 27, 2003