Eight Parkinson’s Disease patients were treated with their own bone marrow stem cells (BMSC) injected via minimally invasive non-surgical routes and discharged the next morning without complications.
“We show the clinical use of autologous BMSC in PD patients, not in animal tests” leader investigator Dr. Luis Geffner said.
Evaluations with UPDRS, Hoehn & Yahr scale and Schwab & England score showed encouraging improvements such as the graphologic tests performed before and after the trasplant that demonstrated significant differences.
Additionally the total L-dopamine dose could be decreased suggesting that stem cells may enhance endogenous dopamine synthesis. He also explained that they are very cautious and prudent emphasizing that they are not talking about cure but stem cells may possibly be a new tool to complement current treatments and delay the progress either of the illness or its complications such as the side effects of some medication.
This study showing safety and feasibility of autologous adult BMSC transplant in PD patients was presented in Baltimore on October 11th 2009 in the 23rd Annual Symposium of Etiology, Pathogenesis and Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease and other Movement Disorders organized by the Parkinson Study Group in affiliation with the American Neurological Association and published in September 2009 issue of Movement Disorders, a peer -review journal.
Geffner's team has already transplanted 144 patients suffering from different illnesses or trauma states and many of them have been followed up 5 years showing that autologous adult BMSC neither provoke tumors, immunologic rejection, infections nor arise ethical or religious controversies.
Dr. Geffner has been working in the field of clinical application of stem cells since 2001 and is author and co-author of several papers, lecturer in many meetings and has also founded the stem cells research in Ecuador in July 2004.
He is in charge of the Clinical Research & Regenerative Medicine Department of the University Hospital SHDUG of the state University of Guayaquil, Ecuador (www.stemcellsecuador.com).
Programs in various diseases and trauma states are currently being performed by his team and they expect to have new data to publish in the near future.
For more information go to www.parkinsonresearchfoundation.org
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