Scientists repair injured spinal cord using patients' own stem cells:
Intravenous injection of bone marrow derived stem cells (MSCs) in patients with spinal cord injuries led to significant improvement in motor functions, researchers from Yale University and Japan report Feb. 18 in the Journal of Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery.
For more than half of the patients, substantial improvements in key functions -- such as ability to walk, or to use their hands -- were observed within weeks of stem cell injection, the researchers report. No substantial side effects were reported.
The patients had sustained, non-penetrating spinal cord injuries, in many cases from falls or minor trauma, several weeks prior to implantation of the stem cells. Their symptoms involved loss of motor function and coordination, sensory loss, as well as bowel and bladder dysfunction. The stem cells were prepared from the patients' own bone marrow, via a culture protocol that took a few weeks in a specialized cell processing center. The cells were injected intravenously in this series, with each patient serving as their own control. Results were not blinded and there were no placebo controls.1
[...] Kocsis and Waxman stress that additional studies will be needed to confirm the results of this preliminary, unblinded trial. They also stress that this could take years. Despite the challenges, they remain optimistic.
[...] "The idea that we may be able to restore function after injury to the brain and spinal cord using the patient's own stem cells has intrigued us for years," Waxman said. "Now we have a hint, in humans, that it may be possible."
1Given this information, can we really conclude anything from this study?
Journal Reference:
Intravenous Infusion of Auto Serum-expanded Autologous Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Spinal Cord Injury Patients: 13 Case Series [open], Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery (DOI: 10.1016/j.clineuro.2021.106565)
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday February 25 2021, @05:19PM (2 children)
"Using patients own stem cells"
I'm kind of out of the loop, but are there a lot of stem cell therapy's that use other people's stem cells? I'd think there would be a terrible tissue rejection problem.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 25 2021, @06:06PM
All the initial stem cell research used other (often fetal) stem cells, not sure how bad rejection issues were. Then they figured out how to get stem cells from adults and the research became less controversial.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 26 2021, @03:47AM
Also a naive question... could they use sperm cells injected into the rectum? It sounds to me like it's worth a try.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 25 2021, @05:25PM (1 child)
It would be great if this works, but at this point who knows? Good excuse for asking for more funding, my cynical side says.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by pe1rxq on Thursday February 25 2021, @06:48PM
You can tell a little. It is probably well known what the average results are from the regular treatment. If these results are significantly above it, it means something special happened during this research.
Whether it was the stem-cells or something else (just lucky patients) is indeed not known.
But still this is a promising first step.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 25 2021, @06:53PM (1 child)
https://archive.org/download/TerryADavis_TempleOS_Archive/videos/2017/2017-07-12T04:47:05+00:00%20-%2008JewishPig.MP4 [archive.org]
His crown jewel fight video between him and his parents.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 25 2021, @07:22PM
Hello friend, during trying times like these we must come together and support one another. Do not give in to hate ir greed, together we grow. A rising tide raises all ships!
Be best my fellow crewmates on starship Earth!
-APK
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday February 25 2021, @07:19PM
So is this cranking it up to 11? After all this is Spinal Ta .... cord repair.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 26 2021, @04:57AM
Softcore? Bah!