Mayo Clinic, the top-ranked hospital in the USA, is researching how stem cell therapy can treat neurodegenerative diseases. Mayo is among the first to study whether stem cell therapy might trigger healing for spinal cord injury. Research is ongoing in preclinical models, but it also has advanced from discovery science to early clinical trials. It’s a complex question, because different forms of stem cells can be derived from different biologics within the body. Mayo Clinic is driving the research that seeks new ways to restore form and function for patients with debilitating injuries and diseases.
Spinal cord injury
Spinal cord injury Mayo Clinic researchers found that rats with spinal cord injury have improved movement after applying stem cells. The authors hope this preclinical data will support the eventual development of regenerative therapy for spinal cord healing.
“Spinal cord injury affects many patients, and current treatments are often limited and supportive in nature,” says Mohamad Bydon, M.D., a Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon and senior author of the paper. “This research is an opportunity to impact a significant disease that causes a great burden to so many patients.”
When the spine is injured, the electrical signal it carries from the brain is stopped at the point of injury, and the patient experiences paralysis. Unlike skin or muscle cells, injured cells of the spinal cord, called “neurons”, don’t repair or replace themselves very quickly or at all, especially as the body ages. To see if the healing process could be jump-started, Dr.
Bydon’s team examined if the cells that help regenerate other tissues could help in the spine, as well.
Cellular template
Stem cells are a kind of cellular template. In an embryo, these are the cells that can divide into more stem cells or become other tissues in the body. In adults, stem cells are more limited, but they are also less controversial in terms of ethical use. They can be harvested from bone marrow or fat tissue, and then engineered back into a stem cell-like state and called “mesenchymal stem cells”. Less invasively, stem cells can be gathered from umbilical cord blood saved after pregnancy. These cells are, as Dr. Bydon and his co-authors write, easier to work with and divide more actively than mesenchymal stem cells collected from bone marrow or fat.
The team, which is led by Dr. Bydon, used rat umbilical cord stem cells to treat six of the 12 rats in the study one week after spinal cord injury. The rats were evaluated for 14 weeks after injury, and the authors found that the procedure resulted in improved motor function, compared to the control rats.
“Umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells may have a neuroprotective function,” says Dr. Bydon, citing better healing in the insulation around the nerve cells, smaller injury size, fewer immune cells flocking to the area and reduced scar formation.
In subsequent work, the team plans to clarify the regenerative properties of mesenchymal stem cells to create a targeted therapy for spinal cord healing.
“At Mayo, we focus on the needs of the patient, and in the case of patients with spinal cord injury, there is a significant area of unmet need,” says Dr. Bydon. “We have the opportunity and potential to create new paradigms of treatment.”
Best hospital in the world
Mayo Clinic is the world’s largest integrated, not-for-profit medical group practice. Newsweek magazine ranks Mayo Clinic as the best hospital in the world. Additionally, U.S. News & World Report has ranked it No. 1 in more specialties than any other hospital in the U.S. for seven consecutive years. Mayo Clinic has locations in Rochester, Minnesota, Phoenix, Arizona and Jacksonville, Florida in the United States and a specialty clinic in London, England.
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