Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Stem Cell Scaffolding Makes New Brain Tissue After Stroke Damage

I like the idea of keeping stems cells where you want them, I wonder if arteries gravitate to this scaffolding. From 2009 so I would hope this is being used in todays stem cell trials.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/141510.phpResearchers in the UK inserted tiny scaffolds with stem cells attached into the stroke damaged brains of rats and found that they grew into new tissue to fill the holes made by the stroke damage.

The research was led by Dr Mike Modo of the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London and took place at the Institute of Psychiatry and University of Nottingham. It is to be published in the journal Biomaterials and was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

The researchers found it only took 7 days for the scaffolded stem cells to fill the stroke damage holes.

Other studies have tried to fill holes left by stroke damage with stem cells but found they just migrated to surrounding tissue. However, Modo and colleagues found this problem ceases when the stem cells have a structure to cling onto.

"We would expect to see a much better improvement in the outcome after a stroke if we can fully replace the lost brain tissue, and that is what we have been able to do with our technique," said Modo in a press statement.

For the scaffolding Modo and colleagues used individual particles of a biodegradable polymer called PLGA. They "loaded" the PLGA particles with neural stem cells and injected them into the stroke cavities.

"This works really well because the stem cell-loaded PLGA particles can be injected through a very fine needle and then adopt the precise shape of the cavity," Modo explained.

"In this process the cells fill the cavity and can make connections with other cells, which helps to establish the tissue," he added.

Over the next few days they could see the cells migrating along the scaffolding made by the PLGA particles and forming into primitive brain tissue that interacts with the host brain.

"Gradually the particles biodegrade leaving more gaps and conduits for tissue, fibres and blood vessels to move into," said Modo.

Modo and colleagues used an MRI scanner to find the exact spot in the brain to inject the PLGA loaded with stem cells and also to observe the growth of new tissue.

They now want to try adding VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) to the PLGA and stem cell scaffold to see if it encourages new blood vessels to form in the new tissue.

"Stroke is a leading cause of disability in industrialised countries," said Professor Douglas Kell, Chief Executive of the BBSRC.

"It is reassuring to know that the technology for treating stroke by repairing brain damage is getting ever closer to translation into the clinic," he added, explaining that the work being done by Modo and colleagues provides a solid foundation for further research and better treatments.

Joe Korner, Director of Communications at The Stroke Association agrees and calls the study exciting because Modo and colleagues were able to overcome many of the challenges of converting the promising idea of stem cells into reality.

Korner said every five minutes someone in the UK has a stroke.

"This research is another step towards using stem cell therapy in treating and reversing the brain damage caused by stroke," he added, but cautioned that while this work appears to show it is possible to reverse the damage caused by stroke, therapies for stroke survivors are still a long way off since considerably more research is needed before the technique can be tried on humans.

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