Stem Cell Therapy To Treat Huntington's Disease
Related News: Spinal / Nervous / BrainIt is going to soon be very difficult to track all the different stem cell therapy studies out there. So many different diseases and conditions are being evaluated for treatement using stem cells.
The latest case in point, news of a new study is going to come out in this month's Lancet Neurology journal. This latest news regards stem cell transplants in treating Huntington's disease.
Researchers are evaluating the benefits of an experimental stem cell therapy in reducing the most common symptoms Huntington's like muscle stiffness and memory loss. However, based on the current results, the benefits peaked after two years and then faded four to six years after the procedure.
This is obviously not a total cure. However, the study tends to suggest that transplanting stem cells to with the goal of replacing the brain cells damaged by Huntington's disease may offer patients promise and hope.
In the study, researchers followed five patients with Huntington's disease for as many as six years following the treatment with stem cell transplants.
This all culminates in potential increased quality of life for sufferers of Huntington's Disease. Sure this is the early stage of development of stem cell therapies for afflictions like these, but seeing even a limited improvement for short periods of times leads me to think that the field of research is on the right path.
Read more at WebMD - Stem Cell Therapy Helps Huntington's
Posted on February 27, 2006 11:34 PM