Written by Laura Glitsos Friday, 11 December 2009 13:15
A RESEARCH team at Royal Perth Hospital’s Cell and Tissue Therapies (CTTWA) facility have designed a life-saving stem cell therapy, already responsible for bringing a Perth teenager back from the brink of death.
CTTWA medical director Professor Richard Herrmann says these cells are “amazing.”
“So far the evidence has suggested they don’t require cross-matching or typing. I could give my cells to you.”
In 2007, 20 year-old Lane Martino was not expected to live, after developing severe graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) from a bone marrow transplant to treat his aggressive leukaemia.
By the end of the year, Lane had been treated with a novel therapy using “mesenchymal stromal cells” (MSCs) and is now on the road to recovery.
MSCs are a heterogeneous subset of stromal stem cells that can migrate to injured tissue, or the site of inflammation, to stop the release of cytokines and therefore tune down immune reaction.
MSCs can not only home in on the site of inflammation but can also differentiate into cells of the mesodermal lineage, such as bone, fat and cartilage cells, performing a type of ‘bioscaffolding’ work to support damaged cells.
Because of these abilities, it is hoped further research will provide therapies for other debilitating immuno-related conditions.
Research has already been carried out using MSCs in the treatment of Crohn’s Disease and it is believed a US firm, Osiris, will soon commercialise the therapy.
Global attention focused on the therapeutic potential of using these cells in 2004 with the release of a pivotal paper in The Lancet, featuring the work of Professor Katarina Le Blanc who first used MSCs to successfully treat a 9 year-old boy who developed GVHD after a bone marrow transplant for leukaemia.
However, Prof Herrmann’s team including Dr Marian Sturm, were the first to apply the therapy in Western Australia, using MSCs to save Lane Martino.
Since then, nine other patients have been infused with MSCs and are all responding to the treatment.
