Researchers in Korea, Canada and China have reached the same conclusion: Transplanted stem cells can help stroke victims recover faster and more fully. Researchers tested two kinds of stem cells in two different studies: human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) and bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC).
The two studies, both recently published in the journal Cell Transplantation, have found that these stem cells, no matter where they are injected in the body, will travel to damaged and blood-deprived areas of the brain and help repair damage caused by a stroke. Ren-Ke Li, MD, PhD, and lead author of the joint Canadian-Chinese study, says that the subjects tested “exhibited significant reductions in scar size and cell death and improvements in neurological function when compared to controls that received no BMSCs.”
“Both studies lend important support to a growing body of laboratory evidence that bone marrow is a remarkable adult stem cell source for transplant therapy following stroke,” says Cell Transplantation associate editor Cesar V. Borlongan, Ph.D.
