Repairing Brain Damage with Stem Cells (12/7/2006)
A British company has applied to the US Food and Drug Administration for permission to carry out clinical trials
on 12 stroke patients.
The human trials involve transplanting stem cells made from human fetal tissue, into the brains of stroke patients.
Until now doctors had assumed that brain damage, caused by loss of blood to the brain during a stroke, was
irreversible. ReNeuron, the company applying for permission to perform the tests, claims that it has
'convincing lab evidence' that the cells could regenerate the damaged portions of the brain.
Animal testing was performed on rats in which a stroke had been induced, and there ability to move was limited
by brain damage. They the injected the fetal stem cells into the brains of the rats. Tests showed that
blood flow and brain activity had significantly increased after the injection.
Dr Eric Miljan, Reneuron's head of stem cell discovery, said: "We're very excited. There have been a battery of
tests. There have been a series of animal safety experiments. And they work."
US FDA regulators are concerned with one portion of the therapy, where the researchers had genetically
modified the fetal brain cells. The modification was the addition of a gene called c-myc, which is associated with
cell division. ReNeuron says, that they have added the new gene so that they could control the rate and ability
of the new cells to divide and grow. By adding a chemical they can cause the fetal stem cells to multiply.
Removing the chemical causes the replication process to stop.
ReNeuron hopes to use the same 'batch' of fetal stem cells, without the need to replenish them. By growing more
on demand, with the modified gene, they can limit the amount of cells they would normally need to harvest.
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