What is Stem Cell: [StemCells] Adult SCs and disease treatment

Adult Stem Cells May Treat Many Diseases
Study Suggests Benefits for Patients With Autoimmune Diseases and
Heart Disease
By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Medical NewsReviewed by Louise Chang, MDFeb. 26, 2008 -- Adult
stem cells harvested from either blood or bone marrow hold promise
for the treatment of a wide range of autoimmune diseases and heart
disease, a research review shows.

Since the late 1990s, adult stem cell therapy has been used
experimentally to treat multiple sclerosis (MS), type 1 diabetes,
rheumatoid arthritis, and several other diseases of the immune
system, as well as heart disease.

Northwestern University researcher Richard Burt, MD, and colleagues
summarize results from roughly 60 of these studies involving about
2,400 patients in a review published in tomorrow's edition of The
Journal of the American Medical Association.

Burt pioneered the research on adult stem cells for the treatment of
autoimmune disease. He tells WebMD that the potential uses for stem
cell therapy are only now beginning to be understood.

"Traditional medicine is about three approaches -- drugs, surgery,
and radiotherapy," he says. "Stem cell therapy represents a fourth
arm of treatment that in some cases will be combined with other
treatments and in other cases will stand alone. We are seeing the tip
of the iceberg right now."

Stem Cell Patients Tell Their Stories
Barry Goudy, 48, and Tom Van Lieshout, 76, are both believers. Both
are Burt's patients.

Goudy had battled multiple sclerosis for eight years before having a
transplant of stem cells taken from his own blood five years ago this
summer.

"I played hockey and racquetball and had always been very athletic,
but I just couldn't do it anymore," he says. "I got to the point
where I couldn't walk up the stairs without dragging my leg."

Goudy spent a month in the hospital, including five days of
chemotherapy to knock out his immune system. But he tells WebMD he
has been free of MS symptoms ever since.

He says he's now playing hockey and racquetball again, and is "living
my life."

"I've had five good years that I wouldn't have had," the Detroit
automobile sales representative says.

Tom Van Lieshout was facing the amputation of his right leg due to
circulation complications from diabetes when he had a stem cell
transplant in January 2005.

He says he was in such excruciating pain before having the treatment
that he could only walk 50 to 100 yards at a time.

"When I went into the hospital I walked from the parking ramp to the
entrance, which was a couple hundred yards, and I had to stop three
times," he tells WebMD. "Just a few days after [the transplant] I was
able to walk three blocks to the drugstore and back."

Stem Cell Therapy
Much of the attention and all of the controversy surrounding stem
cell therapy has focused on embryonic stem cells -- cells harvested
four to five days after an embryo is fertilized.

Adult stem cells exist to replace damaged or aging cells, and they
are found in tissue throughout the body of adults and in the blood
and bone marrow, where cells are much easier to harvest.

Stem cell therapy has been used for many decades to treat leukemia
and other cancers, but the treatment-related death rate is high due
to the aggressive chemotherapy and/or radiation used to dramatically
suppress the immune system and kill cancer cells.

This type of treatment has generally been considered too dangerous
for less life-threatening diseases, and in the review by Burt and
colleagues the treatment-related death rate was 13% among patients
with autoimmune diseases who had the most aggressive, bone-marrow
suppressing treatments.

In contrast, the death rate among patients who had a less aggressive
treatment known as a non-myeloablative transplant -- or "transplant
light" -- was less than 1%.

Twenty-six studies involving 854 patients with various autoimmune
diseases were included in the review.

Most of the studies involved patients with MS, who fared best when
they were treated with non-myeloablative regimens.

The same thing appears to be true for patients with type 1 diabetes.
The less aggressive and dangerous treatment also shows promise for
the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, lupus, and
other autoimmune diseases.

Seventeen studies involving just over 1,000 heart attack patients and
16 studies involving just under 500 patients with coronary artery
disease suggested a "modest benefit" for the treatment in
cardiovascular disease, the researchers conclude.

Many important questions remain about the use of stem cell therapy in
non-malignant disease. And only time will tell if patients like Goudy
and Lieshout are cured of their diseases.

"We don't yet know what role this therapy will play in the treatment
of MS," National MS Society Vice President for Biomedical Research
Patricia O'Looney, PhD, tells WebMD. "We just don't have enough data."

Stem cell researcher Stanton L. Gerson, MD, of Case Medical Center's
Ireland Cancer Center, says the therapy may hold the key to better
treatments or even cures for a wide range of diseases.

"My sense is that this treatment will soon become mainstream for a
least some of these diseases," he tells WebMD.

http://www.webmd.com/news/20080226/adult-stem-cell-therapy-shows-
promise

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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:

Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/

Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123

The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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