Are there stem cell therapies available for spinal cord injury?

To our knowledge, no stem cell therapy has received Health Canada or U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for treatment of spinal cord injury at this time. Patients who are researching their options may come across companies with Web sites or materials that say otherwise and offer fee-based stem cell treatments for curing this disease. Many of these claims are not supported by sound scientific evidence and patients considering these therapies are encouraged to review some of the links below before making crucial decisions about their treatment plan.

For the latest developments read our blog entrieshere.

For moreabout stem cell clinical trials for spinal cord injuryclick here. For printed version:http://goo.gl/ZpNLg)

The basis of using stem cells to treat spinal cord injury would be as a source of new cells and products that could prevent further spinal cord damage, restore nerve function, generate new nerve cells and guide the regrowth of severed nerve fibres. Stem cells have an unparalleled regenerative capacity with the flexibility to grow into hundreds of different cell types and make factors that can support a range of physiological functions. Researchers are evaluating which types of stem cells are the best for growing neurons and other support cells in the brain, and making factors that promote nerve function. They want to develop strategies that transplant the support cells that wrap myelin insulation around nerve fibres to conduct electrical signals. A steady supply of these cells grown from stem cells could be a tremendous asset for studies that are exploring how to restore nerve function across damaged spinal cords.

Two main strategies for using stem cells to treat spinal cord injury are being explored: exogenous and endogenous repair (exo meaning outside the body and endo meaning inside the body). In exogenous repair the required cells are first grown from stem cells in the laboratory and then transplanted into patients. In endogenous repair stem cells are transplanted into the patient and the outcome depends on the bodys ability to coax the stem cells to grow into the required cells. Either way, the goal is to use stem cells to improve nerve function. There are no existing therapies that are able to repair spinal cord injuries.

Many research teams around the globe are working to develop stem cell therapies for spinal cord injury. Their common goals are to identify which stem cells are best suited for the job, which signals will be able to coax them into becoming neurons or support cells, and which large scale lab methods are effective at ramping up the production of the required cells.

The discovery of neural stem cells in Canada in 1992 kindled great hope among that stem cells could someday be used to regenerate the damage caused by spinal cord injury. Until around 1998, it was believed that the brain could not repair itself by regenerating new neurons. We now know that patients who have partial lesions to the spinal cord do experience a degree of spontaneous recovery arising from the ability of the brain to reorganize new connections. These observations spurred researchers to test their theories in animal models of spinal cord injury, and the positive results have provided the proof of principle that stem cells can potentially improve function after spinal cord injury.

Stem cell research is continuing on a number of different avenues and some of the successful stops along the way have yielded early Phase 1and 2 clinical trials for spinal cord injury. These trials are very small, mostly testing the safety of putting adult stem cells into patients. The results should yield information about the viability of this kind of therapy, but further clinical trials will be required to answer the question of whether a stem cell therapy can improve nerve function. For patients, the answer to that question is still many years away.

A North American clinical trial is using adult neural stem cell injections to treat spinal cord injury. Find out morehere.

See the article here:
Spinal Cord Injury | Canadian Stem Cell Foundation