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California Scientist to Conduct Human Trials Using Stem Cells for Spinal Cord Injury Treatment

A California scientist has found remarkable success using stem cell therapy to get rats with spinal cord injuries to move again. He is now ready to conduct trials on human beings to see if the therapy works just as well for them.

Dr Hans Kierstead has conducted experiments on laboratory rats to see the effects of stem cell therapy on them. What the researcher did was to use embryonic stem cells, and help them evolve into spine cells. Once he had a concoction of pure spine cells, he injected this mixture into the rats. Dr. Kierstead found that the rats were able to walk within six weeks of receiving the injection. The new spine cells traveled into the spinal cord, and were able to wrap around the damaged nerves.

He’s hoping that the exact same results will be replicated in human beings. He expects human trials into the research to begin later this year. Initially, 10 patients will be injected with the mixture, and they will be observed over a period of three months. Dr. Kierstead hopes that the injection with the pure spine cells will travel to the damaged spinal cord, and cover the damaged nerves, coaxing movement.

However, he insists that the therapy will not lead to dramatic improvements. In short, a person in a wheelchair, who has no movement in his lower limbs, will not suddenly be able to begin playing sports. He’s hoping instead for small incremental changes in movement.

The research has its critics who believe that Dr. Kierstead is pushing the trials on human beings far too quickly. Dr. Kierstead says that spinal cord injury victims are desperate for a cure. It has been years since there has been any progress made in getting these people to walk again. According to him, his lab was the first to develop a pure concentration of stem cells that can coax the cells to become spine cells. This is the core of his research – the ability of the stem cells to become only the spine cells, and nothing else.

Spinal cord injury lawyers in California will be looking at these trials closely, to see if anything concrete comes out of these. For a spinal cord injury patient who has been confined to a wheelchair and has not been able to move any part of his or her body, even a small movement of a finger may be a major step forward. These injuries are very common in major impact accidents like car crashes, tractor-trailer accidents, and after workplace injuries. Spinal cord injuries can also occur from major falls. Other causes can include assaults and battery.

Whatever the source, victims may find it hard to adjust to their newly reduced capacities. Depending on the injuries, spinal cord injury victims can be divided into quadriplegics and paraplegics. Quadriplegics may have loss of movement in all four limbs, and paraplegics may have lost the use of the lower limbs. These people are waiting for a cure that can offer an improved quality of life, hopefully these treatments will some day offer them the cure that they have been waiting for.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of Spinal Cord Injuries. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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