Lung Disease And Stem Cells
It is possible to help patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease with Mesenchymal Stem Cells. By far, the most common cause of COPD is smoking, but respiratory conditions such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis can contribute to COPD. Medical professionals have been hailing stem cell treatment for COPD as a promising treatment for patients who either don't find relief from surgery, medicine or other therapies.
Read below to learn how stem cell therapy for COPD can help COPD patients return to a normal life. Two stem cell researchers have found an abundance of abnormal stem cells in the lungs of patients who suffer from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a leading cause of death worldwide.
It is worth emphasizing that this study corresponds to the first study in the literature that reports a change in the natural history of pulmonary emphysema after the use of cell therapy with a pool of bone marrow mononuclear cells. Yu YB, Song Y, Chen Y, Zhang F, Qi FZ. Differentiation of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells into hepatocytes in comparison with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.
The new method might help patients to control the disease and improve their quality of life. Since its inception, Lung Health Institute has treated 5,900 patients. These have mostly used Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs; sometimes referred to as Mesenchymal Stem Cells) from a range of tissue sources and have focused on testing safety in a small number of patients.
Results of one of their initial studies, performed in lung transplant recipients who had developed chronic lung allograft dysfunction, showed that it was safe and feasible to provide cell therapy intravenously to this population. Still, there are considerable challenges before effective stem cell treatment can be realized in emphysema patients.
The riskiest and most difficult treatment option is lung transplants where new lungs totally or partially replace a patient's damaged organ from a living or deceased donor. The stem cells in the control group grew and clumped into an stage 2 emphysema unrecognizable mass. Endogenous lung stem cell transplants and bioengineered therapies are not appropriate for all candidates.