Trial Of
Stem Cell Transplants Yields Positive Results For Patients With MS
A small
trial in the US which set out to investigate the safety and efficacy of stem
cell therapy for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) has yielded promising
results three years into the study. After wiping out the patients’ immune
systems and then repopulating them with stem cells, the majority of
participants sustained remission of active MS and had improvements in
neurological function.
Multiple
sclerosis is one of the most common diseases of the central nervous system,
affecting some 2.3 million people worldwide. It’s an inflammatory disease in
which the body’s immune system attacks the protective covering of nerves,
called myelin. This means that communication between cells of the nervous
system is slowed, disrupting the flow of information to and from the brain.
