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Posted on Jun 13, 2005, 6 a.m.
By Bill Freeman
Promising news from ABC: "South Korean researchers say they have successfully used stem cell therapy to treat brain-damaged stroke victims and others who have suffered similar organ damage.
South Korean researchers say they have successfully used stem cell therapy to treat brain-damaged stroke victims and others who have suffered similar organ damage.
The Health Ministry, which has funded the research, says the stem cell treatment has had a "remedial effect" on 64 of the 74 patients suffering from cerebral infarction and other conditions caused by blood circulatory disorders.
It says it is the first successful stem cell therapy in South Korea involving a group of patients rather than an individual.
"This clinical success for patients in a larger group clears away doubt about stem cell therapy, and also paves the way for the early and common use of stem cell therapy," it read.
The clinical research team made up of six medical doctors from the country's Catholic and Chonbuk universities report no side effects such as immunity rejection during the therapy.
The team says it has extracted stem cells from the bone marrow of the patients, whose condition was caused by clogged blood vessels leading to brain or other organ damage.
They then injected the damaged organs with the stem cells.
"The function of those (impaired human) organs was found to improve significantly after they were injected by the stem cells," it said.
It says that three of five cerebral-infraction patients who have been treated "improved significantly in terms of linguistic impediment and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)".
The other two have improved "slightly" after the therapy.
"It is the first case... that the direct injection of stem cells into damaged brain parts has put a remedial effect on the patients," Na Hyung-Kyun, a neurologist who joined the team, said.
"Some patients were unable to communicate before the (stem cell) therapy, but they have now gotten better enough to communicate with their spouses."
Stem cells derived from cord blood or bone marrow can develop into replacement cells for damaged organs or body parts.
But research on embryonic stem cells has triggered ethical problems as critics say it is unethical and dangerous to produce embryos - regarded as living humans by some people - for scientific use.
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