Ukrainian Stem Cell Treatment

Ukrainian Stem Cell Treatment

The BBC reported today on a hospital in Kiev, the Ukraine, where many ill people from other countries are turning for stem cell treatment. The EmCell Clinic is operated by Professor Alexander Smikodub, who has been using stem cells to treat patients since the early 1990’s. According to the BBC story, the Chernobyl nuclear explosion in 1986 created massive health problems, causing the state to begin funding research into alternative methods of repairing tissue and blood cells.

Smikodub obtains his stem cells from fetuses aborted at 3-8 weeks. The cells are frozen for usage, and are tested before being transplanted into patients. Smikodub, whose has not published any research in refereed journals, says that his treatments greatly increase the flexibility of damaged muscles. His work has been criticized by Western scientists as nothing more than anecdotal. The BBC story quoted one British scientist as saying that very few stem cells transplanted in laboratory animals actually make it to the site of the muscle injury and continue to differentiate.

I’m feeling ruthlessly scientific this morning, and I am in agreement with those people who suspect a placebo effect. Further, given that so much of his work on stem cells began with people suffering from the effects of radiation, I wonder how much, if at all, that is a factor.

Dr. Stephen Barrett has compiled some information about this clinic. The infomation can be found at http://www.quackwatch.org/06ResearchProjects/stemcell.html.

Literary tidbit: An interesting novel on the Chernobyl disaster is Accident: A Day’s News, by the (then) East German writer Christa Wolf. I think it’s out of print but there are copies around.

Cholesterol Drug May Help Stimulate Heart Stem Cells

Cholesterol Drug May Help Stimulate Heart Stem Cells

Researchers from the University of Buffalo say that pravastatin, which is used to lower high cholesterol, appears to increase the concentration of stem cells in the heart. It also improved cardiac function and coronary blood flow in animals. The story is reported by UPI on Science Daily. The results were presented at the American Heart Association’s conference, where earlier in the week other researchers said that have identified a gene which limits the effectiveness of statins in lowering cholesterol in some people. (That study is reported on Forbes.) It would be interesting to know if the stem cell effect also has a genetic component.

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Don’t Help Hearts, Reports New Study

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Don’t Help Hearts, Reports New Study

In a study apparently contradicting a trial which I blogged on earlier (11/14/05, “Bone Marrow Stem Cells Help Hearts Again”), researchers at the same conference where the prior results were presented said that in their study they found that found that the heart's ability to pump had improved virtually the same degree in those injected with the bone marrow cells as in patients who had received a placebo. The main difference between the two studies was that the first looked at all varieties of heart attacks, while the second looked only at patients who had suffered heart attacks in the left anterior wall of the heart. The second study’s lead researcher said that further research is needed. The story is reported by Reuters.

These differing results show how much the field is in its infancy, and how little there is to go one even with the advances that have been made recently. Careful research continues to be needed in all areas of stem cell study.

Stem Cell Successes?

Stem Cell Successes?

Indian officials are concerned about an Indian clinic which claims to have helped 100 people with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and paralysis. The treatment was done with embryonic stem cells. The Indian government said that the protocols of stem cell therapy and the operation details need to be developed so that research and treatment takes place effectively and “quackery” is not tolerated. The clinic released a compilation of the case studies, done over the last 5 years, and the clinic director said that Indian Council of Medical Research had the opportujnity to review the cases before the therapies were started. The news, reported on Rediff.com and in The Statesman, focuses on the expressed need for guidelines and does not give any results of the treatments. MedIndia reported today that a committee will be set up to begin work on these guidelines.

Meanwhile, The Scotsman reported on a 19 year old woman with multiple sclerosis who was treated with umbilical cord stem cells at a clinic in the Netherlands. She has been in a wheelchair for over a year and said that she now finds it much easier to get in and out of the wheelchair and can walk with limited support. A spokesman for the Multiple Sclerosis Society said,

The potential for stem cell therapy to repair the damage caused in multiple sclerosis is well recognised. In view of possible risks, we believe that great caution is needed when considering any unorthodox treatment which has not been subjected to rigorous trials and review.

And that goes for me, too. These clinical treatments may have been effective, but I wouldn’t recommend that anyone who is not already terminally ill get treatment with any medical procedure until it has been through a rigorous approval process or as part of a carefully supervised clinical trial. Anecdotal successes are not the same as a double-blind study.