Stem Cell Treatment Enables MS Patient to Walk Again

12/14/2009

Australian physicians used stem cells to “reset” the patient’s immune system

John Carrol of Fierce Biotech Research reports on an article in the UK’s Telegraph newspaper that Australian physicians used a new stem cell therapy to essentially "reset" the immune system of a patient with multiple sclerosis, allowing him to walk again.
In the procedure, physicians first removed the stem cells from the patient's bone marrow and then eradicated his immune cells with chemicals. The stem cells were then planted back in the body, restoring a healthy immune system.

"At the moment there's a good chance we may have arrested the disease," said Dr. Colin Andrews, a neurologist based in Canberra. "He walks pretty well, there's only some mild weakness in his right leg and some visual loss in one eye and apart from that he's very intact."