Stem cell therapy improves motor impairment and is safe and well tolerated in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), results from a phase 2 trial indicate.
Dr Peter McAllister
"We proved for the first time that we can affect outcomes in moderately to severely disabled patients with TBI using stem cells," study investigator Peter McAllister, MD, co-founder and medical director of the New England Center for Neurology and Headache, Stamford, Connecticut, told Medscape Medical News.
"I think the potential of regenerative medicine was always out there, but we are now getting to the point where we're living up to that potential," said McAllister, who is also an associate professor of neurology at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven.
The findings were presented at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) 2022 Annual Meeting.
No Effective Treatment To-Date
TBI can lead to motor deficits and chronic disability and currently there are no effective drugs to treat these deficits.
Researchers are increasingly focused on using somatic stem cells to restore lost function. Stem cells can differentiate or proliferate into different types of cells and are thought to promote repair and regeneration of tissues or organs damaged due to illness or injury.
The study included 61 patients with TBI with an average age of 34 years (70% male and 69% White).
