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Novel stem cell therapy provides long-term treatment for Crohn's fistula

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
"Long-term follow-up of patients with fistulae related to Crohn’s disease demonstrated sustained complete closure after autologous adipose-derived stem cell therapy, according to research data.

“Crohn’s fistula is one of the most distressing diseases as it decreases [a] patient’s quality of life and frequently recurs,” Chang Sik Yu, MD, PhD, from Asan Medical Center in Seoul, Korea, said in a press release. “It has been reported to occur in up to 38% of Crohn’s patients and over the course of the disease, 10% to 18% of them must undergo a proctectomy.”

Currently available treatments fail to achieve complete closure or reduce recurrence and adverse events, he added.

In a previous phase 2 clinical trial involving 43 patients with Crohn’s fistula, Yu and colleagues demonstrated that mesenchymal stem cells derived from adipose tissue were safe and had therapeutic potential, with 82% of patients achieving complete healing with sustained response for 1 year.

“It strongly demonstrated [mesenchymal stem cells] derived from [adipose-derived stem cells] are a safe and useful therapeutic tool for the treatment of Crohn’s fistula,” Yu said.

Yu and colleagues then performed a retrospective study to assess long-term outcomes. Included in the intention-to-treat analysis were 41 patients (68.3% male; mean age, 26.2 ± 5.5 years) who were followed for an additional year at five South Korean hospitals from January 2010 to August 2012, all of whom had received either one or two adipose-derived stem cell injections into the tract of the fistulae in the initial study.

In the modified per protocol analysis, 79.3% of patients had complete healing at 12 months and 80.8% had complete healing at 24 months. In the modified intention-to-treat analysis 80% showed complete response at 12 months and 75% at 24 months. Of the 24 patients with complete closure at week 8 who were studied for durability, 83.3% had sustained complete closure at 24 months. No adverse events related to treatment occurred.

“These results strongly suggest that autologous [adipose-derived stem cells] may be a novel treatment option for Crohn’s fistulae,” Yu said.

“Stem cells derived from fat tissue are known to regulate the immune response, which may explain these successful long-term results treating Crohn’s fistulae with a high risk of recurrence,” Anthony Atala, MD, editor-in-chief of Stem Cells Translational Medicine, and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, said in the release. – by Adam Leitenberger"

http://www.healio.com/gastroenterol...ovides-long-term-treatment-for-crohns-fistula
 

nogutsnoglory

Moderator
I have no clue but it's a very exciting development. I think I read in another article that it's an injection into the fistula itself. If that's the case it doesn't sound like a very difficult process at all.
 
For what it's worth, some other Stem Cell therapy studies:

Cx601
http://www.tigenix.com/
Cx601 is a suspension of allogeneic expanded adipose-derived stem cells (eASCs) delivered locally through intra-lesional injection. Cx601 is being developed for the treatment of perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease patients.
Currently in Phase III trials in Europe with expected trials in US to follow. Target to European market in 2017 if it meets regulatory approvals.

Furestem-CD
http://www.kangstem.com/front/
Stem cell therapy. Currently recruiting Phase 2 study patients. This is intended to be a “curative” therapy.

Prochymal
http://www.osiris.com/prod_crohns.php
Class: mesenchymal stem cell therapy
Stage: Enrolling Phase 3 Trials
Stem cells are able to divide and renew themselves. They can be induced to become tissue and organ specific cells. Because of these characteristics, stem cells act as an internal repair system and can replace diseased and damaged tissues. Stem cell therapy works in IBD by serving as repair systems for specific inflammatory responses.

remestemcel-L (Prochymal)
Class: Stem Cell Therapy
Stage: Phase III
http://www.mesoblast.com/products/im...crohns-disease
Highly purified, immunoselected Mesenchymal Precursor Cells (MPCs) that help regulate T-cell mediated inflammatory responses by inhibiting T-cell prolieferation and also down-regulating the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha and interferon gamma. More critically, mesenchymal lineage stem cells have been shown to be capable of effective down-regulation of Th17 cells, reduction in IL-17 levels, and induction of FoxP3 regulatory T cells.
 

Lady Organic

Moderator
Staff member
where are the stem cells extracted from? or where are they from? from the patient's own body? excuse my ignorance on this subject...

So there would be injections for fistulas and infusion for mucosal inflammation if I understand correct. That is truly awesome.
 
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