Mice severely disabled by a multiple sclerosis (MS) – like condition could walk less than two weeks following treatment with human stem cells.
The finding, which uncovers new avenues for treating MS, will be published online on May 15, 2014, in the journal Stem Cell Reports.
When scientists transplanted human stem cells into MS mice, they predicted the cells would be rejected, much like rejection of an organ transplant.
Expecting no benefit to the mice, they were surprised when the experiment yielded spectacular results.
“My postdoctoral fellow Dr. Lu Chen came to me and said, ‘The mice are walking.’ I didn’t believe her,” said co-senior author, Tom Lane, Ph.D., a professor of pathology at the University of Utah, who began the work at University of California, Irvine.
Within just 10 to 14 days, the mice regained motor skills. Six months later, they still showed no signs of slowing down.
“This result opens up a whole new area of research for us,” said co-senior author Jeanne Loring, Ph.D., co-senior author and professor at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.
More than 2.3 million people worldwide have MS, a disease where the immune system attacks myelin, an insulation layer surrounding nerve fibers. The resulting damage inhibits nerve impulses, producing symptoms that include difficulty walking, impaired vision, fatigue and pain.
The MS mice treated with human stem cells experience a reversal of symptoms. Immune attacks are blunted, and damaged myelin is repaired, explaining their dramatic recovery. The discovery could help patients with latter, or progressive, stages of the disease, for whom there are no treatments.
Counterintuitively, the researchers’ original prediction that the mice would reject the stem cells, came true. There are no signs of the cells after one week. In that short window, they send chemical signals that instruct the mouse’s own cells to repair the damage caused by MS. This realization could be important for therapy development.
“Rather than having to engraft stem cells into a patient, which can be challenging, we might be able to put those chemical signals into a drug that can be used to deliver the therapy much more easily,” said Lane.
With clinical trials as the long-term goal, the next steps are to assess durability and safety of the stem cell therapy in mice.
“I would love to see something that could promote repair and ease the burden that patients with MS have,” said Lane.
“This result opens up a whole new area of research for us,” said co-senior author Jeanne Loring, Ph.D., co-senior author and professor at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.
More than 2.3 million people worldwide have MS, a disease where the immune system attacks myelin, an insulation layer surrounding nerve fibers. The resulting damage inhibits nerve impulses, producing symptoms that include difficulty walking, impaired vision, fatigue and pain.
The MS mice treated with human stem cells experience a reversal of symptoms. Immune attacks are blunted, and damaged myelin is repaired, explaining their dramatic recovery. The discovery could help patients with latter, or progressive, stages of the disease, for whom there are no treatments.
Counterintuitively, the researchers’ original prediction that the mice would reject the stem cells, came true. There are no signs of the cells after one week. In that short window, they send chemical signals that instruct the mouse’s own cells to repair the damage caused by MS. This realization could be important for therapy development.
“Rather than having to engraft stem cells into a patient, which can be challenging, we might be able to put those chemical signals into a drug that can be used to deliver the therapy much more easily,” said Lane.
With clinical trials as the long-term goal, the next steps are to assess the durability and safety of the stem cell therapy in mice.
“I would love to see something that could promote repair and ease the burden that patients with MS have,” said Lane.
The Latest on: Human Stem Cell Treatment
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Human Stem Cell Treatment” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Human Stem Cell Treatment
- Regeneration Biomedical doses first patient in phase I trial of stem cell therapy to deliver directly to brain of Alzheimer’s disease patientson April 25, 2024 at 1:31 am
Newport Beach, California Thursday, April 25, 2024, 14:00 Hrs [IST] ...
- John Cleese is spending thousands on stem cell therapy – is it really the secret to anti-ageing?on April 24, 2024 at 10:00 pm
John Cleese is spending thousands on stem cell therapy – is it really the secret to anti-ageing? - IN FOCUS: ‘Monty Python’ star John Cleese has revealed that he has been having stem cell treatment ...
- New device improves stem cell generation and chance for accessible Alzheimer's cell therapyon April 24, 2024 at 12:11 pm
Researchers in Sweden say they have improved on a technique for converting regular skin cells into neural stem cells—an advance that they say helps close the gap for accessible personalized cell-based ...
- Characterizing Human Stem Cell-Derived Disease Models with Microelectrode Arrayson April 22, 2024 at 9:48 pm
Drug development for the treatment of amyloid lateral sclerosis (ALS) requires an understanding of how genetic mutations lead to the ALS phenotype. Researchers use human induced pluripotent stem cell ...
- Stem cell treatment for brain diseases praisedon April 18, 2024 at 5:00 pm
British scientists today welcomed research by their US counterparts into developing stem cell treatments for devastating ... A spokesman for the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority ...
- This Startup Wants To Be OpenAI Of Stem Cell Therapy, Targets $250B Marketon April 10, 2024 at 6:00 am
Somite.ai aims to improve the lives of millions of people by leveraging AI to produce human tissue for cell therapies.
- Stem Cell Research and Therapy Newson March 14, 2024 at 5:00 pm
MDedge News, December 13, 2023 Stem Cell Therapy Implant Shows Promise for ... 2023 Israeli Scientists Create Model of Human Embryo Without Eggs or Sperm Scientists in Israel have created a ...
- The Stem Cell Divideon September 14, 2023 at 5:53 am
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority ... that wins the race to create the first FDA-approved embryonic stem cell therapy. Tom Okarma certainly believes so, and he intends to be ...
- Stem cell therapyon October 11, 2022 at 3:49 am
However, the usage of these in treatment of human disease is still only being developed. Tissue stem cells are a safer alternative for stem cell treatments compared to pluripotent stem cells. Yet, ...
via Bing News