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Spinal Cord Injury Accident Analyzed By First Embryonic Stem Cell Trials

Even as federally-funded stem cell research facilities across the country are floundering after a recent court order prohibiting fundING for embryonic stem cell research, a California-based company has already begun the first embryonic stem cell treatment for spinal cord injuries.  It is a great moment for California spinal cord injury lawyers who have advocated clinical trials of stem cell treatment to treat spinal cord injuries and brain injuries.

The company, Menlo Park-based Genro Corporation, has already begun testing the stem cell treatment on a patient who has suffered from a spinal cord injury accident.  The stem cell therapy field received a setback earlier this year when a federal judge ruled against using federal funds in embryonic stem cell research.  However, Geron Corporation is unaffected by that ruling, because this is a privately-funded research.  According to Geron, human embryonic stem cell research at the facility began in 1999.  Back then, experts believe that it would take several decades for human clinical trials to begin.  Just over a decade later, the first clinical trial has already begun.

This is the first time that the treatment using embryonic stem cells has been used on a human being.  The patient who is undergoing the treatment had been admitted into the Shepherd Center, a spinal cord injury treatment center in Atlanta.  This site is one of at least seven other potential sites where patients may be administered the treatment.  Currently, this is phase 1 of the trial, which means that the focus now will be on determining how safe the stem cell therapy is.  Right now, the researchers are not looking at how effective the therapy is to treat spinal cord injury.

The drug is called GRNOPC, and it contains stem cells that have been coaxed into turning into oligodendrocytes, cells that produce a coating that encourages impulses to travel along nerves.  If the treatment is successful, new oligodendrocytes will be produced in place of the old damaged ones, and this will allow impulses to travel along the nerves.

Embryonic stem cell therapy is one of the most promising treatments, not just for a spinal cord injury accident, but also brain injury, several cancers, Alzheimer’s disease many other conditions.  For the people who suffer from these conditions and for the millions of people who sustain a brain injury or a spinal cord injury every year, this is one of the greatest hopes for a complete cure.  Embryonic stem cells are highly versatile cells that have the ability to morph into any type of cell.  This means that through manipulation, they may even be able to morph into healthy since cells.  That is the basis of this research, and California spinal cord injury attorneys hope that the clinical trials are successful.  That will give hope to millions of people with spinal cord injury in the US for who restricted mobility and movement is a fact of life.

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 http://www.robertreeveslaw.com/. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us at contact@robertreeveslaw.com.

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

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