Source: NewScientist.com news service
Posted: 10:03 17 June 2006
Summary
Human clinical trials for a stem cell treatment to repair injured spinal cord tissue may begin soon. The possibility that the recipient's immune system will see the transplanted cells as foreign and attack them has been a major concern with embryonic stem cell (ESC) treatments. Now Geron Corporation in Menlo Park, California, claims to have shown that this might not be a problem, at least for spinal repair treatment. Georon CEO Tom Okarma believes that the first product derived from embryonic stem cells will be in clinical trials in the next year. In the trials, Geron plans to treat patients with acute spinal injuries using oligodendrocyte progenitor cells that support neurons in the brain and spine by sheathing them in myelin, a fat that helps neurons to transmit signals. grown from human ESCs.
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