Discovery sparks new hope for breathing recovery after spinal cord injuries
Originally published by Case Western Reserve University in medicalexpress.com, on August 12, 2025 Edited by Gaby Clark , reviewed by Robert Egan ChAT+ INs are activated under a hypercapnic gas challenge. Credit: Cell Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116078 Late actor Christopher Reeve , best known for his role as Superman in the 1970s and '80s, became an activist for spinal cord injury research after being paralyzed in a horseback-riding accident —making him a lifelong wheelchair user and on a ventilator. Reeve, who died in 2004, was among about 300,000 people nationally living with a spinal cord injury , with respiratory complications being the most common cause of illness and death, according to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, which he and his late wife created to support the research. But the results of a new study, led by researchers at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine , show promise that a group of nerve cells in...