Enzyme treatment of spinal cord transected rats.

Russian investigators have recently reported clinical recovery of enzyme treated, spinal cord transected rats. Using the exact protocols of Matinian and Andreasian's two most successful treatment regimens, we repeated their experiments using United States produced pure hyaluronidase and trypsin or trypsin and elastase. Animals were evaluated for return of bladder function, clinical evidence of hind limb motor function, cortical evoked response after sciatic nerve stimulation, and axonal transport of cortically injected tritiated proline by regenerated corticospinal axons. None of the treated animals differed from control animals treated only with the enzyme vehicle. No animals walked, had return of voluntary motor activity, showed cortical evoked response, or had evidence for transport of tritiated proline over regenerated corticospinal axons.