Japan team carries out world-first spinal cord stem cell trial
There is currently no effective treatment for paralysis caused by serous spinal cord injuries, and more than 100,000 people in Japan are affected alone.
There is currently no effective treatment for paralysis caused by serous spinal cord injuries, and more than 100,000 people in Japan are affected alone.
Surgeons at Tokyo’s Keio University are examining induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) to treat these injuries. The first step in the clinical trial was to transplant more than two million iPS-derived cells into a patient's spinal cord in a operation last month. The number of cells implanted was determined after safety experments on animals. The patient will be monitored by an independent committee for up to three months to determine if the study can continue safely and others can receive transplants.
The team also hopes that stem cell implants will improve neurological function and quality of life.
The focus of the project is on people who were injured 14 to 28 days before the operation.
The researchers said that while they will be monitoring for therapeutic effects, the main purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety of cell injections, and the initial stage of this study was to confirm the safety of the transplant method.
The university received government approval in 2019 to conduct a clinical trial, but the project was temporarily put on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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