印度科學家利用骨髓幹細胞治療中風病患已完成第一階段的臨床試驗.
此試驗有12名中風病患,在發作後的一個月內,科學家抽取病患的骨髓幹細胞,再由前臂靜脈注射回體內,12名病換手術成功,有70%病患可以漸漸恢復正常的生活.
Stem cell therapy offers hope to stroke patients
NEW DELHI: Stem cell therapy is offering new hope to stroke patients. Those handicapped by the condition find it difficult to perform routine activities like walking, speaking, eating or taking bath on their own. Now they may be cured from their own stem cells.
Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences have developed a new therapy wherein injecting stem cells taken from the patients' bone marrow back into the antecubital vein in the forearms and near the elbow can help them recover faster. The phase I trials of this therapy have been completed in which 12 stroke patients were treated successfully. More trials are being conducted on 120 new patients.
In this procedure, doctors inject stem cells in stroke patients in the first month after onset of stroke. Research shows that more than 70 per cent of the patients are able to perform basic functions of daily life.
According to one of the researchers, when stroke occurs, some part of the brain is damaged irreversibly but there are neurons surrounding the affected portion of the brain which are sleeping while some are inactive, energy-less and at the risk of death. "The stem cells are like chemical factories of molecules which help in waking up the sleeping cells, activate the inactive and save the dying ones. They have the property to accelerate the inherent process of recovery also. Through all these means, the stem cell limit the area of damage and ensure faster recovery of the patient,'' said the researcher, who wished to remain anonymous.
Professor of Neurology at AIIMS Dr Kameshwar Prasad, who is the coordinator and lead investigator for this project called 'Autologous Intravenous Bone Marrow Derived Cell Therapy for Patients with Ischemic Stroke' confirmed that phase II trials are being carried out at five centres across the country. "The second phase of this project will be completed by June 2011. I would not like to share any further details on the success of the trials before that,'' said Prasad.
The phase II trials are being conducted at five centres across the country, including AIIMS, Army R&R Hospital ( Delhi), PGI (Chandigarh), SGPGI (Lucknow) and the Armed Forces Medical College (Pune). The study is funded by the department of biotechnology, government of India.
At present, medical treatment, surgery and lifestyle modifications are the available options. The new breakthrough, if validated further, can bring hope to more than 14 lakh patients who suffer from stroke every year. About 15 per cent of these patients succumb to the condition.
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