People once dependent on wheelchairs after having a stroke are walking again since receiving injections of stem cells into their brains. Participants in the small trial also saw improvements in their speech and arm movements.
“One 71-year-old woman could only move her left thumb at the start of the trial,” says Gary Steinberg, a neurosurgeon at Stanford University who performed the procedure on some of the 18 participants. “She can now walk and lift her arm above her head.”
Run by SanBio of Mountain View, California, this trial is the second to test whether stem cell injections into patients’ brains can help ease disabilities resulting from stroke.
Steinberg injected the cells through a borehole in the skull into regions of the brain that control motor movements, and which had been damaged by the stroke. Each participant received either 2.5, 5 or 10 million cells.
The injected material consisted of mesenchymal stem cells taken from the bone marrow of two healthy donors. SanBio genetically engineered the cells to possess a gene called Notch1, which activates factors that help brain development in infants. Experiments in rats revealed that the engineered stem cells disappear within a month or so, but not before secreting several growth factors that build connections between brain cells and spawn the growth of new blood vessels to nourish growing brain tissue.
“We think the cells change the adult brain so that it’s more like a baby’s brain, which repairs very well,” says Steinberg. “They are secreting all sorts of growth factors, which aid repair, and which also alter the immune system to get rid of inflammation that otherwise obstructs repair.”Full story:https://www.newscientist.com/article/2091841-stem-cell-brain-injections-let-people-walk-again-after-stroke/
Corina Marinescu
Reference:http://www.san-bio.com/
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