- Several groups investigated in English therapies with adult stem cells
- may be used to close wounds and ulcers or various diseases
The cells drugs are as alive and intelligent s: have a great ability to solve different problems, but they are uncontrollable and unpredictable if not perfectly know what you're doing. Currently, There are about 3,000 clinical trials of cell therapy in the world, but only about 100 have reached Phase 3, ie, have a significant number of patients. Most of them also belong to the field of hematology, pioneered the use of cells, particularly those of bone-marrow to treat diseases such as leukemia or lymphoma.
Outside this area, which actually has decades of advantage over other forms of cell therapy, studies that have reached their final stage can be counted on the fingers. "Right now, nobody has successfully completed a Phase 3 with stem cells other than hematology. But they are bound for a long time: the novelty lies in the non-haematological cells, to treat non-hematologic diseases, "says Damián García Olmo, director of the Cell Therapy Group of La Paz Hospital in Madrid.
These
are just some of the studies that, with due respect to scientific protocols, are ongoing in Spain in the field of cell therapy applicable to a wide range of disorders and diseases. In some cases is more advanced, in others it begins now experience and, sometimes, be has begun to treat patients, but all are significant to the future: where is the cell and tissue transplantation:
Degenerative
José María Moraleda, Professor of Hematology at the University of Murcia and coordinator of the Cell Therapy Network, is working at the Hospital Virgen de Arrixaca (Murcia) for five years in a clinical trial to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), degenerative disease afflicting the physicist Stephen Hawking. "We have passed the stage of showing that cells with the method we use are safe, and now we are trying to prove its effectiveness." The idea is to inject these 'living drugs' within the spinal cord (the neural tissue that transmits nerve impulses), using various procedures and check the patients' motor skills improve. "The next phase will allow us to see if cell transplantation has a positive effect," the expert adventure.
So far, it has been observed in laboratory mice with sporadic ALS (the most common variant of the disease) that the specimens treated cells survive longer and the process of paralysis progresses more slowly. "The infusion of cells protects motor neurons (responsible for movement) to to survive longer and better, "Moraleda said.
Repair scars
Damián García Olmo, head of Colorectal Surgery and director of the Cell Therapy Group of the Hospital La Paz, wants to use cell transplants for solve one of the great problems of surgery: healing. To do this, nothing better than going to an extreme case and see if therapy can help: "We chose as a model perianal fistula [an abscess that connects the anal canal skin abroad] because it is the most difficult to heal, especially in patients with Crohn's disease [inflammation of the bowel caused by an autoimmune process] " García Olmo said. "We had some problems, we have learned and I think within the next four or five years, we have results applicable to surgery," he adds.
Other studies are testing similar procedures but applied to myocardial infarction, a treatment that also could benefit from tissue regeneration using stem cells, says García Olmo. "And the third major group of diseases is the world of traumatology and orthopedics," says the researcher. The procedure, with its many nuances, Recobeco and difficulties, is always the same: to regenerate damaged tissues by implanting cells with the capacity to differentiate into the 'medicine' necessary.
Repair
cornea transplant cornea common, which involves removing the eye tissue of a dead donor and implant it into the patient, is already an established clinical practice. However, sometimes fails because this tissue needs to be renewed every day, through a niche stem cells called limbo. If the limb is in bad shape, the cornea is no longer transparent and the patient loses vision. Ana Sanchez, Professor of Physiology at the University of Valladolid, and his group take a decade working with stem cells, and are currently transplanting and patient's own stem cells in the limbus of the cornea so that it can renew itself and avoid the above problem.
"If there is a healthy eye, we take a biopsy of the limbus and grow in the laboratory on a membrane that is placed like an eye patch. Lens is placed so as not to move, the days are removed and the cells are in limbo, "says Sanchez. "If the injured patient has two eyes, we must resort to a corpse, the cells are from another person and must be used immunosuppressive agents, but as the limb is poorly vascularized, usually works well" explains. "We had 30 patients with 80% of success."
Breast Reconstruction
César Casado, head of the department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery of the Hospital La Paz, Madrid, working with fat cells taken from the patient's own skin through a process of pumping and spin . Once the cells are separated from adipose tissue, can be used in plastics that require different treatments to rebuild or improve parts of the anatomy, including the face. "I would have many aesthetic possibilities," says this expert, who adventure "breast reconstruction of the future [for patients who have overcome breast cancer] is going to go around. "
fat cells could also be very useful for patients with facial atrophy, either congenital or acquired. A major advantage of this system is speed, because the fat is infiltrated within hours. Moreover, "because they are not aggressive patient's own cells," said Casado, although he admits that more experience is needed to control the degree of absorption and implantation of the cells.
skin Cultivating
Married The team doctor also works on the skin culture in the laboratory, to treat patients who have suffered accidents or burns. The process "cumbersome and very expensive," involves removing inches from the patient's healthy skin, you can get back or other areas that have not been affected, then this tissue grown in the laboratory to multiply its size. The skin, which can also be extracted from a cadaver donor, processed in a kind of mesh with knives, and once that has produced the required amount can be implanted in the patient to repair other damage.
Ana Valladolid Sanchez and his team also work on projects to regenerate the skin and in the design of artificial bone cartilage. The latter would apply in plastic and maxillofacial surgery, to replace the nose or ear, for example, in patients who have been victims of tumors or accidents. "We make a matrix with cells from the patient and can be molded. If I make a mold of your ear, I have an ear," says the doctor. For now, these projects are in experimental stage, even with animals. The infusion of cartilage in the knee, useful in sports injuries and other sorts of ailments, is being tested with sheep, and they've got a small ear, designed by a dentist, who will attempt to implant in rats.
Source: elmundo.es
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