A stem cell treatment has shown promise in improving motor function for two out of four patients with spinal cord injuries in the first clinical study of its kind, according to Japanese scientists.
Currently, no effective treatment exists for paralysis caused by severe spinal cord injuries, which affect over 150,000 people in Japan, with 5,000 new cases reported annually.
Researchers at Tokyo’s Keio University are conducting the study using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), which are created by reprogramming mature, specialized cells into a juvenile state. These cells can then be guided to develop into various types, with the Keio team using iPS-derived neural stem cells.
The university announced on Friday that two patients showed improved motor function after receiving an implant of more than two million iPS-derived cells into their spinal cords.
After a year of monitoring, no serious adverse effects were reported in any of the four cases. The primary goal of the study was to evaluate the safety of the cell injections.
According to public broadcaster NHK, one of the two patients who showed improvement was an elderly man who had suffered a spinal injury in an accident.