For this reason, many people call ALS “Lou Gehrig's disease.”ĪLS affects more than 12,000 people in the United States. Lou Gehrig, who was a 7-time all-star baseball player (New York Yankees, 1923 to 1939), developed ALS. This is why ALS, which affects nerve cells, causes muscle weakness in the face, arms, and legs. When the nerve cell dies, as in ALS, the muscle cell also dies. The nerve cells and the muscle cells work very closely together. These nerve cells, also called anterior horn cells or motor neurons, are responsible for muscle control. This allows for future clinical trials to assess the efficacy of this procedure in the treatment of ALS.Īmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurologic disease that attacks nerve cells in the spinal cord. Based on these findings, the transplantation of HSSC into the spinal cord can be safely expanded to include many surgical centers. found that stem cell implantation can be safely done at high doses. These medications were necessary to suppress the immune system so that the body would not reject the newly implanted stem cells. Others had side effects from the immunosuppressant medications that were given after the procedure. For instance, some people had pain after the surgery. The majority of side effects were related to the procedure to implant the stem cells. In other words, the stem cell transplantation did not have a negative effect on the health of participants. showed that there were no differences in terms of progression of disease between those who received the stem cells and those who did not. The untreated people with ALS were derived from 3 previous studies in ALS. The authors compared this group to a similar group of people who had ALS, but who did not receive the stem cell treatment. In the study by Glass at al., every person received the stem cell injections. First, it must not make the disease worse. In order for a procedure to be safe, it must meet 2 criteria. In addition, each person was carefully monitored for progression of ALS. The participants were assessed for side effects or complications of the injection procedure. One group also underwent 2 surgeries where stem cells were injected into 2 different levels of the spinal cord, both the cervical (neck) and lumbar (lower back) region. Groups 1–5 received an increasing number of cells per injection and number of injections. A total of 15 participants with ALS were divided into 5 treatment groups. The study was performed at 3 academic medical centers. Can increasing doses of stem cells be injected safely? Can surgeons at different institutions be trained to carry out this procedure safely? How many injections can be administered safely? How many surgeries can patients undergo safely? These were some of the questions this study tried to answer. 3 published the results of their phase 1 trial showing that a single concentration of HSSC could be injected safety into the spinal cord. ![]() 2 These results have prompted researchers to initiate studies in people. The studies have shown that the injection of stem cells into the spinal cord delayed the onset of ALS and improved survival. Why do researchers think this intervention is promising for patients with ALS? Several studies have already been done in rodents with ALS. Therefore, the results of this study are critical: these results help to decide whether larger studies of stem cells in the treatment of ALS should be done. In addition, before a study can be done to determine whether stem cells can be used to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the safety of the treatment must be assessed. Small studies like this are important: they often pave the way for larger studies. 1 set out to study a specific question: Is the injection of human spinal cord–derived neural stem cells (HSSC) into a human spinal cord safe? They also wanted to know if this specialized procedure could be safely performed at multiple surgical centers by different surgeons. In their article “Transplantation of spinal cord–derived neural stem cells for ALS: Analysis of phase 1 and 2 trials,” Glass et al.
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