MRI guidance shows promise in delivering stem cell therapies
In a description of the work, published online Sept. 12 in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism , they express hope that the tests in anesthetized dogs and pigs are a step toward human trials of a technique to treat Parkinson's disease, stroke, and other brain damaging disorders. "Although stem cell-based therapies seem very promising, we've seen many clinical trials fail. In our view, what's needed are tools to precisely target and deliver stem cells to larger areas of the brain," says Piotr Walczak, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of radiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Institute for Cell Engineering. The therapeutic promise of human stem cells is derived from their ability to develop into any kind of cell and, in theory, regenerate injured or diseased tissues ranging from the insulin-making islet cells of the pancreas that are lost in type 1 diabetes to the dopamine-producing brain cells that die off in Parkinson...