Tag Archives: Stem cell

Skin may treat multiple sclerosis

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It may be possible to use a patient’s own skin to repair the damage caused by multiple sclerosis (MS), which is currently incurable, say researchers.

Nerves struggle to communicate in MS as their insulating covering is attacked by the immune system – causing fatigue and damaging movement.

Animal tests, described in the journal Cell Stem Cell, have now used modified skin cells to repair the insulation.

Experts said there was an “urgent need” for such therapies.

Just like electrical wires, nerves have insulation – but instead of plastic, the body uses myelin.

However, diseases that result in damage to the myelin, including MS, leave the nerves exposed and electrical signals struggle to travel round the body.

A team of scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center, in the US, used advances in stem-cell research to attempt to repair the myelin.

They took a sample of human skin cells and converted it into stem cells, which are capable of becoming any other type of cell in the body.

The next step was to transform the stem cells into immature versions of cells in the brain that produce myelin.

Multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis

When these cells had been injected into mice born without any myelin it had had a significant effect, said researchers.

Dr Steven Goldman told the BBC that “myelin was produced throughout the nervous system” and some mice had achieved “normal life spans”.

He said: “In MS the underlying nerves fibres are still there, the objective is to re-myelinate them.”


However, MS patients would still have the problem of their immune system attacking their myelin.

Any treatment would need to be used alongside other therapies to tame the immune system – or would need to be repeatedly performed.

Dr Goldman said he could see “no reason to be pessimistic” although further safety tests would be needed and the technique still needed to be refined before being used in people. He expects to begin trials within a couple of years.

Dr Emma Gray, from the MS Society, said: “Myelin repair therapies are urgently needed in MS and we’re pleased to see researchers have been able to generate myelin making cells from human stem cells.

“This is still very early stage research, but with more development could one day be used to repair damage to myelin in people with MS. We look forward to seeing more research in this promising area.”

Stem cell treatment for glaucoma

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A treatment for one of the most common causes of blindness could soon be available.

British researchers have used stem cells to heal the damage caused by glaucoma.

The treatment has only been tested on rats, but scientists say it could be tested on humans by 2015 and in widespread use four years later.

At present one in ten glaucoma sufferers go blind, due to late diagnosis, drugs not working or the disease being particularly severe.

Researchers at University College London took healthy stem cells – ‘master’ cells capable of turning into other types of cell and widely seen as a repair kit for the body – from human eyes.

They used a cocktail of chemicals to turn them into retinal ganglion cells – those that die in glaucoma. They then injected these into the eyes of rats with glaucoma-like damage.

After just four weeks, the cells had connected with existing nerve cells, and the animals’ eyes worked 50 per cent better, the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine reports.

Researcher Dr Astrid Limb, who was part-funded by the Medical Research Council, said: ‘Although this research is still a long way from the clinic, it is a significant step towards our ultimate goal of finding a cure for glaucoma and other related conditions.

‘The human eye is actually very efficient. We can still have fairly good vision with very few functioning retinal nerve cells, which is why many glaucoma patients don’t show symptoms until it is too late to treat the underlying cause of their vision loss.

‘If we can restore even a small number of retinal ganglion cells through cell therapy, and achieve functioning vision, we could potentially delay or even reverse blindness caused by glaucoma.’

Glaucoma

Glaucoma

Glaucoma affects half a million Britons and 70million people around the world.

The researchers cautioned that their work is still at an early stage but added that even a small improvement on vision could make a big difference to quality of life.

In glaucoma, the build-up of pressure in the fluid in the eye damages cells in optic nerve, which ferries visual information to the brain for processing.


The researcher envisions the setting up of cell banks, similar to those used to store blood.

Other possibilities include to take healthy stem cells from a person’s own eye and developing a drug that triggers the development of replacement cells inside the eye, removing the need for any sort of op.

Professor Peng Khaw, the study’s co-author, said that even a small improvement in vision could transform lives.

He added: ‘Research like this gives hope to the many millions of people who have lost their sight due to glaucoma.’

Dr Dolores Conroy, of charity Fight for Sight, which also helped fund the research, said: ‘Currently, there is no way to restore the vision of the millions of people who have lost their sight through glaucoma.

‘This research shows that in the near future, it may be possible to use adult stem cells to preserve and restore sight lost through this devastating eye condition.

‘These results bring us another step closer to treating one of the leading causes of sight loss in the UK with stem cell therapy.’

Other research teams are trying to use stem cells to treat age-related macular degeneration, the most common form of blindness in the elderly and the first trials are already underway.