Stem cells against paralysis
Japanese authorities allowed to treat paralysis with stem cells
The Japanese government has officially allowed the use of stem cells and therapies based on them for the treatment of spinal injuries and paralysis after the successful completion of the first clinical trials. This is reported by the news service of the journal Nature.
"It seems to me that the fears of colleagues here are unnecessary – our therapy is very safe. The most important thing is that the effectiveness of its work can be seen with the naked eye. Immediately 12 out of 13 of our patients significantly improved their condition six months after the introduction of cells," said Osamu Honmou from Sapporo Medical University (Japan).
Damage to the spine leads to partial or complete paralysis of the limbs, depending on the location of the injury. To date, scientists are developing several methods of treating such injuries. Many biologists are trying to use stem cells to reconnect between parts of the spinal cord. There are also fundamentally different methods - connecting the limbs to the brain using electrodes. Initially, scientists had high hopes for the use of so-called mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to combat such problems. They are "adult" stem cells present in small quantities in all human organs and have retained the ability to transform into many types of tissues.
Despite the first successes in animal experiments, MSCs today have acquired a controversial status due to the low efficiency of healing of damaged tissues and their lack of ability to turn into neurons and some other types of cells.
Moreover, a year ago, their discoverers proposed to remove the word "stem" from their name, as it misleads people and promotes the spread of therapies of dubious effectiveness that have not been fully tested.
Such concerns, as Nature notes, did not prevent the approval of one of these treatment methods in Japan after the completion of clinical trials, which involved 13 Japanese citizens who had recently been involved in an accident or injured their spine in some other way.
Honmu and his colleagues extracted part of the MSCs from the bone marrow of volunteers, multiplied them and injected them into the blood vessels in the damaged part of the spine. According to doctors, this procedure increased the sensitivity of the limbs of their wards to various stimuli and somewhat improved their control over the muscles.
The reason for this, according to Japanese researchers, was that stem cells could replace some of the dead neurons, as well as prevent the death of other nerve fibers by suppressing inflammation and producing a number of molecules that put them into an "energy-saving" mode.
According to Nature, such statements about the appearance of new neurons and the absence of double-blind clinical trials make other biologists doubt that the Honmu team has really achieved positive results.
Officials of relevant departments, however, did not consider this a serious problem and allowed scientists from Sapporo to sell such therapy to everyone, setting them one condition. Using the data collected during such experiments, Honmu and his colleagues should prove the effectiveness of their development over the next seven years.
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