Enzyme helps stem cells improve recovery from limb injuries
Wednesday, May 14, 2014 - 18:32
in Health & Medicine
While it seems like restoring blood flow to an injured leg would be a good thing, it can actually cause additional damage that hinders recovery, researchers say. Ischemia reperfusion injury affects nearly two million Americans annually with a wide variety of scenarios that temporarily impede blood flow -- from traumatic limb injuries, to heart attacks, to donor organs, said an immunologist. Restoring blood flow actually heightens inflammation and cell death rather than recovery for many of these patients.