CLEVELAND and NEW YORK, Jan. 19, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Athersys, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATHX) announced a joint scientific study on spinal cord injury will be published today in the January issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The study, by leading researchers from the Department of Neurosciences at the School of Medicine and scientists at Athersys, presents data supporting the potential therapeutic benefit of Athersys' MultiStem® program for spinal cord injury. Researchers observed that administration of Multipotent Adult Progenitor Cells (MAPC) following spinal cord injury in rodent models prevented the retraction of neurons, a process referred to as "axonal dieback," reduced inflammation in the region of injury, and also promoted the regrowth of neurons.