Studies at Mayo Clinic provide evidence that the molecules we use at NeoGenesis repair spinal cord injuries in human patients. Injecting AMSCs into the spinal cord of patients with traumatic spinal cord injuries yielded positive outcomes, including changes in sensory and motor scores, imaging, cerebrospinal fluid markers, and somatosensory evoked potentials. The positive results were attributed to the molecules released by the AMSCs, the same molecules used in S2RM and previously demonstrated by my lab to protect and repair neurons.

From: Roosterman et al (2006)

S2RM, based on the molecules that AMSCs and fibroblasts secrete, is a powerful and safe technology. The power of S2RM to benefit the nervous system is one of many mechanisms by which the molecules provide therapeutic actions in the skin. Why? Cutaneous neuroimmunoendocrinology is involved in several skin diseases. That’s a big word used by scientists. It means that the nervous system, the immune system, and endocrine system are all connected. The central nervous system (CNS) is directly, through efferent nerves or CNS-derived mediators, or indirectly, through the adrenal glands or immune cells, connected to skin function.

The skin is innervated by afferent (nerve fiber carrying signal from the skin to the brain) somatic nerves with fine unmyelinated (C) or myelinated (Aδ) primary afferent nerve fibers transmitting sensory stimuli (temperature changes, chemicals, inflammatory mediators, pH changes) via dorsal root ganglia and the spinal cord to specific areas of the CNS, resulting in the perception of pain, burning, burning pain, or itching. It’s a powerful system, and when function goes awry, it can drive you crazy – for example, itching and burning of the skin.

I’ll be nerdy here and explain the brain connection to the skin underlying itch (pruritis), as described by Roosterman et al (2006) in Physiological Reviews.  In pruritus, skin-derived itch-selective primary afferent fibers are connected with specific units within the lamina I of the spinal cord. Here, they form a distinct pathway projecting to the posterior part of the ventromedial thalamic nucleus (nerves projecting from spinal cord to midbrain). The pathway then projects to the dorsal insular cortex that is involved in a variety of interceptive modalities such as thermoception, visceral sensations, thirst, and hunger. As revealed by functional positron emission tomography (fPET imaging technology), induction of itch by intradermal histamine injections and histamine prick induced coactivation of the anterior cingulate cortex, supplementary motor area, and inferior parietal lobe, predominantly in the left hemisphere. This considerable coactivation of motor areas explains the common observation of itch being essentially linked to a desire to scratch. In other words, the afferent “itch signals” from the skin to the brain lead to efferent “scratch signals” from the brain to the periphery (hands).

As you can see, a functional spinal cord is needed for all of this skin-brain signaling to work. And if there is damage to any of these nervous system areas, the peripheral nervous system in the skin, the spinal cord, or the brain itself, S2RM can help to repair it! That’s part of the power of S2RM.