Patients
with broken spines have reported having feeling restored to areas that had
previously been paralysed, after receiving stem cell injections.
Scientists
said they were 'encouraged' after two of three patients injected with donated
foetal brain tissue responded to treatment at Balgrist University Hospital in
Zurich, Switzerland.
Each
patient had around 20million neural stem cells delivered directly into their
injured spinal cords between four and eight months after they were injured.
Early tests suggest stem cells could restore feeling to people with damaged spinal cords |
Before the
treatment none of the patients could feel anything below the nipples. Just
three months after therapy two of the patients reported feeling some sensation.
By six months they could detect both touch and heat between the chest and belly
button. The third patient detected no changes.
Stephen
Huhn, vice president of StemCells in Newark, California, that is developing the
treatment told the New Scientist: 'The face we've seen responses to light
touch, heat and electrical impulses so far down in two of the patients is very
unexpected.
'They're
really close to normal in those areas now in their sensitivity.'
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The team
said stem cells could be helping to restore myelin insulation to damaged
nerves, which would improve the communications of brain signals. Or they could
be reducing the inflammation on existing nerves.
'We clearly
need to collect more data to establish efficacy, but we are encouraged,' Mr
Huhn said.
He said the
company will follow the patients for many years to see if feeling continues. It
will also test the therapy on nine more patients with less severe spinal cord
injuries.
StemCells
is the first company to launch a neural stem-cell clinical trial since the U.S
biotech company Geron abandoned the first ever trial in November 2011.
Geron had
injected four patients with the stem cell therapy who displayed no ill effects.
However, they had also not seen any improvements despite promising tests on
rats.
The company
blamed economic conditions and said it wanted to concentrate resources on two
promising cancer drugs instead.
Related Article:
"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)
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