June 4, 2000: LAB-GROWN CELLS ALLEVIATE SYMPTOMS OF LONG-AGO STROKE
(Adapted from wire service reports)
There have been many recent reports contrary to previous belief that neurons in the human brain and spine cannot regenerate or be replaced after they are killed or injured. In the latest hopeful report, a patient in Scottsdale, Arizona, who had suffered a stroke in 1993, gained dramatic benefit from implants of laboratory-cultured cells.
The patient had lost most of the movement and sensation on her right side, as well as suffering speech impairment and loss of sense of taste. After cells originally obtained from a cancer patient by Layton Bioscience (Sunnyvale CA) were implanted in the stroke patient, she was able, for the first time in several years, to taste her food, talk without stammering, throw a ball with her right arm, walk at times without a cane, and drive a car.
Dr. John Kondziolka, University of Pittsburgh neurosurgeon, was reported to say that similar work on twelve stroke patients had produced some improvement in motor skills in six of them.
Some positive results were also reported by Diacrin Inc. (Charlestown MA), which used brain cells from pig fetuses to treat more than 20 patients with Parkinson's disease.
Scientists and physicians warn not to expect too much too soon, and some fear that cancer-derived cells or those from other animals could risk transfer of disease.