Jelly for Nerves

One of the hardest tricks in surgery is the repair of torn nerves. Every human being has a fixed number of nerve cells at birth, and, unlike other cells, they do not multiply. Torn nerve fibres heal only by sending forth tendrils toward the severed ends. In stitching together jagged nerve ends, surgeon must be careful not to pull the nerve taut, must draw the silk through the petal-thin nerve sheath, not through its body.

Last week in the British Lancet, Zoologists J. Z. Young and P. B. Medawar of Oxford University suggested an easier means of mending torn nerves: a biological "glue."

To prepare a glue, the scientists withdrew blood from an artery of a young cock, spun it in a centrifuge. The heavy red blood cells were thrown away and the clear plasma packed on ice where it stayed fresh for six weeks. Into the plasma the experimenters poured a few drops of chicken embryo extract, "a powerful clotting agent."

Then they cut the large nerves in the legs of several rabbits and dogs, held the stumps close with forceps, dribbled the plasma over them from a pipette. Within two minutes, the plasma thickened to a firm jelly which stuck to the nerves and united the stumps. The jelly held for several days, long enough for the growing nerves to twine themselves on to the cut ends, like vines on a trellis. Healing took about ten days. Next step: use of the blood glue on torn human nerves.

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