Mice suffering from a multiple sclerosis (MS) -like conditions were able to walk only two weeks after being treated with human stem cells.
"My postdoctoral fellow Dr. Lu Chen came to me and said, 'The mice are walking.' I didn't believe her," co-senior author, Tom Lane, Ph.D., a professor of pathology at the University of Utah, said in a news release.
The researchers had expected the mice to reject the foreign human stem cells as they would an organ. Six months after the treatment the mice were still improving and showed no signs of stopping.
"This result opens up a whole new area of research for us," co-senior author Jeanne Loring, Ph.D., co-senior author and professor at The Scripps Research Institute said in the news release.
MS occurs when the immune system attacks the body's myelin, which is "an insulation layer surrounding nerve fibers," the news release reported. The condition is characterized by "difficulty walking, impaired vision, fatigue and pain."
The mice treated with the human stem cells saw a reversal of symptoms; their immune system attacks were "blunted" and the myelin started to repair itself.
The rodents' bodies did reject the stem cells, but the one week they spent in the body was long enough for them to send signals to the brain, triggering myelin repair.
"Rather than having to engraft stem cells into a patient, which can be challenging, we might be able to put those chemical signals into a drug that can be used to deliver the therapy much more easily," Lane said.
The researchers plan to conduct further studies to test the safety of the potential MS treatment.
"I would love to see something that could promote repair and ease the burden that patients with MS have," Lane said.
"This result opens up a whole new area of research for us," co-senior author Jeanne Loring, Ph.D., co-senior author and professor at The Scripps Research Institute said in the news release.
