Stem cells are beginning to make their way through clinical practice.
I happened to surf on Jack's stem cells' blog, a direct account of a promising clinical trial in Wisconsin, whose purpose is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of intramyocardial injections of adult stem cells in patients with refractory myocardial ischemia. This means it's a Phase II trial
In other words, this means taking CD34+ bone marrow stem cells from the patient's own blood and injecting them in those areas of the heart that are not receiving the appropriate blood flow. Wow, this is indeed a promising perspective!
If we want to go in detail we can check the fact sheet at ClinicalTrials.gov
These trials have often very limiting eligibility criteria: this is to get the best, non biased, information from the study which is still a clinical trial, not a routine procedure.
Enrolling for a clinical trial gives the opportunity to access to new research treatments (in this case with your own stem cells) before they are widely available.
I warmly suggest everyone to read the Understanding Clinical Trials document on ClinicalTrials.gov
My best wishes to Jack
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