ABOUT ERLANGER’S STEM CELL CLINICAL TRIAL
The theory: Neuron-like stem cells will circulate in the patient’s blood and secrete cytokines, proteins that serve as messengers between cells. The cytokines should reduce inflammation in stroke victims’ brains, make new connections between surviving brain cells and help grow new blood vessels right in the area of the stroke.Where they come from: The stem cells come from the bone marrow of healthy donors and they’re transformed in a New Jersey laboratory into cells similar to brain neurons.What patients receive: A dose of up to 1.2 billion stem cells, which comes in a single bag and looks like a bag of brownish-colored blood plasma.How it is administered: The stem cells are stored at minus 180 degrees Fahrenheit in liquid nitrogen until they are needed. Then they are thawed and added to a stroke survivor’s blood in an experiment meant to speed recovery.
Stem cell therapy holds promise for people whose conditions leave them without much hope.
For Hannah Locke, sweating again was sort of a miracle.
The Dalton, Ga., 17-year-old was left paralyzed from the chest down in April 2013 after the Hyundai Sonata she was a passenger in got hit head-on by a Ford Explorer that crossed the center line. Now confined to a wheelchair, she is undergoing stem cell treatment in Panama.But it also poses a dilemma:
Stay and wait for U.S. stem cell experiments to pan out and receive government approval, or go abroad for treatments where breakthroughs have been touted but caution is being urged.
That dilemma has played out in Northwest Georgia with two teens whose accidents left them in wheelchairs.