Stem cell therapy a boon to patients: NCRM
Monday February 4 2008 02:56 IST

COIMBATORE: Stem cell therapy does cure liver cirrhosis and spinal cord injury provided the patient is young and the level of injury is low, said Dr Samuel J K Abraham, Director of Nichi-in Center for Regenerative Medicine (NCRM), Chennai.

Talking to journalists here on the sidelines of a one-day seminar on 'Stem Cell and Clinical Applications’ at the KG Hospital, which also entered into a collaboration with NCRM on Sunday, he said stem cell therapy was a real boon to patients with spinal cord injury, liver cirrhosis, peripheral vascular diseases and ischaemic heart diseases.

Pointing out there are clinics with stem cell therapy facility in Dominican Republic, Cuba, Russia, Singapore, Bangkok and Germany, he said many of them use foetus stem cells, umbilical cord cells and adult stem cells.

According to Dr G Bakthavathsalam, autologous stem cells taken from a patient’s own body are the safest and they come under the permissible category of stem cell use as per ICMR guidelines.

He said that their stem cell transplantation technology was based on the proven probabilities given by the Japanese technical collaborators through NCRM.

“Multi-centric study of stem cell application in spinal cord injury, liver cirrhosis and ischaemic heart disease have proven the safety in all and efficacy in select group of patients, who otherwise have no other option for treatment at present,” he said.

NCRM is involved in basic research, translational studies and clinical studies in stem cell therapy. Dr M Natarajan, Chief Neuro Surgeon of K G Hospital was also present.