New stem cell therapy for spinal injuries
27 Apr 2008, 0131 hrs IST,Sujata Dutta Sachdeva ,TNN
Namita's life came to a standstill the day she suffered a spinal cord
injury 16 years ago. Bound to a wheelchair all these years, she felt
life was passing her by. Namita, who loved the outdoors, couldn't
even move without help. But what embarrassed her most was her loss of
bowel and bladder control. Depressed, she had almost become a
recluse. Then life changed suddenly again after she went for a new
stem cell therapy. It worked wonders — she has regained some movement
of her legs; she can take a few steps with the help of a walker and
has even regained control over her bladder.
Harsha, a Bangalore-based paraplegic, too has reason to smile these
days. He had got used to life in a wheelchair for years. But a
mesenchymal stem cell transplant in his spinal chord has given him
some hope. Harsha can now move his limbs a little, and that's given
him a new lease of hope.
Every year, India gets over 20,000 cases of spinal cord injury
patients. A new Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy could be the
answer for these patients. The research, conducted by a team of
doctors at Bangalore-based Stempeutics Research, has shown promising
results. In the pilot study, MSCs were injected directly into the
spinal cord of the patient for maximum efficacy. It was injected
either intra-arterially or through intra-spinal (site of injury)
route. This new technique of injecting of stem cells close to the
site of injury showed good results. "This is the first time anyone
has tried injecting stem cells directly into the injured area. And we
got good results," says Dr Sujay Rao, consultant neurosurgeon, St
Philomenas Hospital, Bangalore. "This system maximises the yield of
stem cells. The chances of loss in the bloodstream is minimised," Rao
explains.
Traditionally, stem cells have always been injected either through
intravenous drips or through lumber puncture directly into the cerebo-
spinal fluid. But when injected this way, the stem cells float around
the body or in the blood stream. Very few of them reach the target.
Moreover, in case of spinal cord injuries, the adjoining tissues let
out a signal called cytobine signals, which attract stem cells from
other parts of body to heal the injury. But in case of an old injury,
these signals are not let out anymore. Therefore, the stem cells that
are injected in the body through the traditional method may not get
attracted to the injury at all. The new method takes care of all
this. Here, MSCs are injected directly into the injury for maximum
effect. These can create tissues or cartilage or bones as required by
the injury and repair it.
So what are MSCs? Stem cells, or master cells as they are popularly
known as, are cells that can divide and produce copies of themselves
and other types of cells. Doctors are using them to treat complex
problems like Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries, end-stage
liver diseases. While we are familiar with embryonic stem cells drawn
from the umbilical cord, there are many other types of human stem
cells. MSCs are found in the bone marrow. They can be derived into a
variety of cells in the laboratory, including fat cells, cartilage,
bone, tendons and ligaments, muscles cells, skin cells and even nerve
cells. In fact, scientists can even grow these cells in culture.
Experts say, unlike most other human adult stem cells, mesenchymal
stem cells can be obtained in quantities appropriate for clinical
applications, making them good candidates for use in tissue repair.
Since the techniques for isolation and amplification of these stem
cells in culture have been established, the cells can be maintained
and propagated in culture for long periods of time without losing
their capacity to form all the above cell types.
What's more, MSCs can retain the introduced genes. So doctors can
make use of this trait to deliver good molecules to targeted
locations. They can even be frozen and preserved, and when they are
thawed, they function normally, thus allowing for future 'off-the-
shelf' therapy approaches as well.
The new therapy from Stempeutics Research could thus provide hope for
many spinal injury patients who have tried out all other
treatments. "It may not be a miracle cure. In fact, the success rate
could be 10-15%. Yet, it can significantly improve the quality of
life of some of these patients at least," Rao explains.
sujata.sachdeva@
http://timesofindia
r_spinal_injuries/
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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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