Stem cells against multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the body's own immune system destroys the myelin sheaths of nerve fibers, mistaking them for a foreign agent.
The study, conducted at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northeastern University in Chicago, involved 12 women and 11 men with early-stage multiple sclerosis, when exacerbations of the disease alternate with periods of remission. The usual types of treatment they have proved ineffective.
Bone marrow stem cells were collected from all participants. Then the immune system (including bone marrow cells) of the patients was suppressed with chemotherapy, after which the stem cells were "returned" back. New immune cells formed from stem cells stopped attacking myelin sheaths.
Within three years after the experimental treatment, the disease did not progress in any of the patients, and 17 of them improved. A number of larger-scale trials are planned to introduce the method into clinical practice.
Copper News based on New Scientist: Multiple sclerosis 'reversed' with stem cell therapyPortal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru