Research sees new ALS hope

by Jim O'Connell
Wednesday, September 17, 2008

University of Wisconsin researchers have discovered a breakthrough in the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

The team, led by associate scientist Masatoshi Suzuki and neurology professor Clive Svendsen, discovered that the use of certain stem cells in ALS-infected muscles of rats have drastically improved their lifespan.

“These rats have a paralysis they develop with ALS, their limbs get frozen, and [the stem cell] slows down that freezing of the limbs over time,” Svendsen said. “By doing this we have extended the length by which the rat can live by about 28 days. This, in the life of a rat, who only lives 120 days anyway, is about 25 percent lifetime extension.”

In previous research Suzuki and Svendsen had used the same stem cells, which come from the bone marrow of adult humans, but did not see the same success.

This was because they had previously placed the stem cells into the spine or brain of the animal instead of directly into the paralyzed muscle.

“We used a combination of the stem cells and delivered them directly into the muscle, which is a very new thing,” Suzuki said.

Due to this direct application, the enhanced stem cells helped secure neurons to the infected muscles. The separation of these neurons is what causes ALS.

Svendsen and Suzuki are trying to push their findings even further by using their genetically modified cells on larger animals.

According to Svendsen this scale problem might be overcome by only injecting the cells into a particular part of the muscle.

However difficult this may be, Svendsen is determined to take the next step.

“The first trial will be probably looking at whether we can slow down disease progression in men by injecting cells into the muscle tissue.” Svendsen said. “Obviously there are a number of steps, this is just an animal, and we hope to acquire data in order to explore how this would work in humans.”

Often the use of stem cells for medical advancement causes a moral and political dilemma, but Svendsen says there is very little controversy surrounding his research.

While use of embryonic stem cells for research has sparked the most debate on this topic, the stem cells used in this project are taken right from the bone marrow of an adult patient.

“Because it’s adult stem cells, it is not that controversial,” Svendsen said. “And it could be used as a new technique for improving function.”



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