Researchers at the University of Rochester found that when they injected Brilliant Blue G dye into rats that had suffered spinal cord injuries, the rats were able to walk again. Those that didn’t get the dye never regained their ability to walk.
This blue dye is the same dye used to color Gatorade and blue M&M’s.
Only problem was that the dye had to be administered immediately after the injury or it wouldn’t work. Oh, yeah, and the rats just happened to temporarily turn blue.
Smurftacular! I’d stay blue, don the white hat and white one piece pajama bottoms, and go skipping through town singing the “La LA la LA la la” Smurf tune every day if the stuff kept me ambulatory.
And if anyone is wondering how the researchers chose to inject intravenous grape Gatorade into paralyzed mice, the researchers found that the spinal cord has a molecule called P2X7 which causes cell death. Apparently they found that BBG dye inhibits the function of the molecule.
More research is needed, but this discovery just boggles my mind.
Damn it, doc! You got that song stuck in my head!
“Nedergaard knew that BBG could thwart the function of P2X7″
But how? How did they already know that?
Yikes! WC, this news conjures up one scary image: Christopher Reeve as a Smurf, dressed in a Superman costume…
This sounds like it could have many other applications. But would it cause cancer?
I’d deal with the blue, too if I could stay ambulatory. I’d sing Leadbelly songs.
So, if a spine snaps in half on a Smurf, is their neuro exam normal?
Only if they eat blue M&Ms
Woot for U of R! (Hometown, weeee!)
Thanks for the earworm, WC. Damn it….
and it is considered safe to consume this stuff?
Apparently so. According to the article it is already approved for coloring M&Ms and Gatorade.
Just because it’s approved… isn’t the ultimate indicator a substance is good for you..as additives and dyes are also questionable for our health.
I volunteered for a food co-op some years ago and the manager was particular about everything they sold there and it HAD to be a pure product.
One vendor suggested no one would ever know all the ingredients in a particular “health” item because it was listed as natural. But the mgr said he would know and refused to carry the product.
So natural (arsenic’s natural) or because FDA approves something…still doesn’t mean it is *good* for you… or safe in the long term.
That being said… the blue m&ms are my favorite.
My aunt used to say “If it’s blue..Patricia likes it!” True. I always liked the smurfs.
Now… I have a funny image of a smurfy looking ED doc
singin “I’m goin to the ED” as he skips through the ED and hospital corridors donning only his white scrub bottoms and a poofyish surgical cap.
I think they have medicine for that.
I wonder whatever became of the polyethylene glycol experiments in dogs for spinal recovery. I also remember Art Bell interviewing a doctor that transplanted a baboon head and he said that if it wasn’t for liability, they’d have a cure in a year or something like that.
http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/full/14/1/27