#stem-cell-therapy

#stem-cell-therapy

Researchers administered one of four doses of stem cells to 118 people between 70 and 85 years old, all of whom had frailty. In a timed walking test nine months after treatment, those who had received the highest dose could walk about 60 metres farther, on average, than they could before treatment.

A trial in the US found that applying stem cells from the mother's placenta to her baby's spine while it was being repaired was safe and improved the child's mobility and quality of life. Dr Diana Farmer, who led the study, said it was conceivable that the experimental therapy could become the usual way that spina bifida is treated before babies are born.

Things look really hopeful right now, but Ollie was the first human to receive this therapy and it's only been nine months out, said Prof Simon Jones, consultant in paediatric inherited metabolic disease at the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine (MCGM) at Saint Mary's hospital. We have four more boys scheduled in and we will need to prove the benefit is long lasting, said Jones, the joint leader of the trial.