To all those wishing to better understand the perspective of cellular technology and the importance of its support in Ukraine, we will, as part of the Bioengineering Rehabilitation for Wounded project, publish news articles from ilaya Medical Company. We hope it will be of interest to you. This new technology is impressive.
Transplantation of stem cells is one of the most promising treatments for various neuro-degenerative diseases, including Huntington’s disease.
One possible source of material for cell therapy are adult neural stem cells (NSC) which easily differentiate into different types of mature nerve cells. However, NSC can trigger an immune response after transplantation.
Another source – derived from bone marrow – are mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that after transplantation produce neurotrophic factors and inflammatory cytokines. MSCs are less susceptible to immune rejection.
American scientists from Central Michigan University in a study compared the efficacy of transplantation of MSCs, the NSC and the combination of these cells for the treatment of Huntington’s disease, which was modeled on transgenic rats.
The cells were injected into the striatum at a concentration of 400,000 cells; a control saline was also used and administered to rats or wild-type transgenic rats with Huntington’s disease.
After 20 weeks after treatment, rats were tested for rotational rate movements. It was found that the stadium caused a strong immune response and gave short-term improvement of behavioral indicators. MSCs caused relatively weak immune response and gave a long-term improvement in behavior. The combination of MSC and NSC gave a long-term behavioral improvement in performance, with increased survival of transplanted NSC. This shows the ability of MSCs to create a favorable microenvironment for transplanted NSC, which improves the survival of latter and ensure the greater efficiency of cell therapy.
So, the best treatment option for Huntington’s disease seems to a be combined transplantation of MSC and NSC, especially if the long-term survival of differentiated cells is crucial for long-term improvement of behavioral functions.
Material from the research is presented in the following article;
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23939879