Stem Cell Therapy For Patients Was A Success

Main Category: Stem Cell Research
Also Included In: Ear, Nose and Throat
Article Date: 19 Aug 2007 - 0:00 PDT

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The Regea Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which operates under the University of Tampere, administered the first clinical stem cell therapy to two patients in cooperation with the Tampere University Hospital. The therapy was a success.

The patients suffered from severe, prolonged frontal sinusitis. An implant combining stem cells and biomaterial was inserted into the damaged bone. Since the therapy, the patients have been well and no longer suffer from frontal sinusitis.

Stem cell therapy was administered to patients with prolonged and severely symptomatic frontal sinusitis that destroyed bone tissue in the forehead. Other treatments such as traditional implants or fat tissue transplants failed to relieve infection.

The new therapy is a combination of stem cells extracted from the patients' own fat tissue and commercial biomaterials. Stem cells in the fat tissue have an ability to differentiate into bone cells. After the stem cells extracted from the patient had been cultivated in the laboratory for about a week, they were combined with a biomaterial that disintegrates in the body. The combination was then inserted into the site of the bone damage in the patient's forehead. This was in late 2006.

Both patients have been monitored regularly and they have reported good health and no symptoms of frontal sinusitis. An X-ray examination confirmed their recovery and the successful onset of ossification in the frontal sinus.

The Regea Institute for Regenerative Medicine is one of the world-leading research institutes in the field. Owing to the extensive application opportunities for tissue technology and stem cell therapy, Tekes has substantially funded Regea's research.

Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation
http://www.tekes.fi