PATIENT’S OWN STEM CELLS MAY REPAIR SPINAL CORD INJURY

For more than half of the patients, researchers observed substantial improvements in key functions—such as ability to walk, or to use their hands—within weeks of stem cell injection with no reported side effects.

The patients had sustained non-penetrating spinal cord injuries, in many cases from falls or minor trauma, several weeks prior to implantation of the stem cells. Their symptoms involved loss of motor function and coordination, sensory loss, as well as bowel and bladder dysfunction.

The researchers prepared the stem cells from the patients’ own bone marrow, via a culture protocol that took a few weeks in a specialized cell processing center. They then injected the cells intravenously in this series, with each patient serving as their own control. Results were not blinded and there were no placebo controls.

Senior authors Jeffery D. Kocsis, professor of neurology and neuroscience, and Stephen G. Waxman, professor of neurology, neuroscience, and pharmacology, both at Yale University,  stress they will need to do additional studies to confirm the results of this preliminary, unblinded trial. They also stress that this could take years. Despite the challenges, they remain optimistic.

“Similar results with stem cells in patients with stroke increases our confidence that this approach may be clinically useful,” Kocsis says.