Stem cells against stroke

The British biotech company ReNeuron Group Plc on Sunday, 19.01.2009, announced that it had received permission from the British Agency for the Regulation of Medicines and Medical Products (Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency) to start clinical trials of treatment of the consequences of ischemic stroke using stem cells.

The first stage of the program will take place in four medical institutions of the capital of Scotland, Glasgow. The main objective of the study was to evaluate the safety of administration of various doses of ReN001 neuronal stem cells, a cell line differentiated by ReNeuron specialists from embryonic cell culture. The organizers of the experiment also hope to confirm the effectiveness of treatment using generally accepted methods of assessing the condition of patients after a stroke.

Four groups of patients, three people each, will periodically receive injections of various amounts (from 2 to 20 million) of ReN001 cells into the affected areas of the brain for different times. Immunosuppressive therapy is not planned, because embryonic neuronal stem cells do not cause rejection reactions. At the same time, these cells are sufficiently differentiated to exclude the danger of teratoma development, which prevents the medical use of "purely embryonic" pluripotent cells.

Groups of patients will be formed in the second quarter of this year. The planned duration of the experiment is one year, but the observation of patients will continue after that. If the first stage is successful, the tests will continue.

Recall that ReNeuron in 2006 filed an application with the FDA to conduct a similar study in the United States, but did not wait for permission.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru20.01.2009