surveys have made progress in repairing spinal cord injuries in paralysed rats .
however , coaxing the cells to grow and form new connections has proved elusive .
though human trials are a way away -- the team wants to trial the method on larger animals first -- the news is an astonishing breakthrough for the field .
paralyzed rats relearn to pee bladder control restored for the first time in animals with stark spinal cord damage by meghan rosen bladder control restored for the first time in animals with stark spinal cord damage by meghan rosen web edition : june 25 , 2013 print edition : august 10 , 2013 ; vol.184 # 3 ( p. 11 ) paralyzed rats can now decide for themselves when it ’s time to take a leak .
the study is the first to regenerate nerves that restore bladder function in animals with severely injured spinal cords .
animals in a new study regained bladder control thanks to a new treatment that coaxes severed nerves to grow .
instead of dribbling out urine , the rodents squeezed out shots of pee almost as well as healthy rats do , researchers report june 25 in the journal of neuroscience .
scientists have tried for decades to use transplants of nerve cells to restore function in paralysed animals by bridging the gap in the broken spinal cord .
if we can show in a larger animal that our technique works and does no additional harm i see no reason why we could n't move rapidly in shutterstock a team of neuroscientists has grafted nerves onto the severed spinal cords of rats , enabling the rodents to regain bladder control .