Stem Cell Therapy for Concussions: Is It for Real?

For your edification. 
https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/headtrauma/70921?
'We haven't even begun to study this'

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Managing Editor, MedPage Today February 02, 2018

This being an application of stem cell therapy we had not heard of before, we asked Michael De Georgia, MD, a neurologist and critical care specialist at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, for his views on such treatments for brain injuries. In this video, he explains that stem cell treatments have shown promise in early studies for certain conditions, but there is currently no evidence that stem cell infusions have any benefit in the context of concussion.

Following is a transcript of De Georgia's remarks:

Well, there's obviously a lot of optimism about stem cells in the treatment of brain injury, including ischemic stroke and traumatic brain injury, mainly because of its pluripotential nature. There have been hundreds of preclinical animal studies showing in general the beneficial effects of stem cells, including the reduction of infarct volume.

But the translation of those preclinical studies to a reliable and consistent therapy that improves the outcomes has been more challenging. There have been a handful of randomized trials, none of which have really panned out, even for ischemic stroke. There has been a little more research done in ischemic heart disease. There have been dozens of randomized trials, some of which have shown a benefit in terms of heart function. But even in those two conditions of ischemic heart disease and ischemic stroke, there have not been any large, randomized, double-blind controlled trials that have shown that consistent benefit. For concussions, there have been especially no clinical trials for this. While there is reason to believe that stem cell therapy may be beneficial, I think it's way too early to jump to the conclusion that it is beneficial for patients.

Most of the research [on therapies in general] has focused on traumatic brain injury, again, in terms of animals models and clinical trials. There is a whole range of studies, mainly clinical studies, looking at how to diagnose concussions and how to translate some of what we know about traumatic brain injury, more serious traumatic brain injury, into more minor brain injuries like concussions. But to date, there is not a foolproof, simple treatment for concussion, other than rest, which is what we advise our patients.

As a physician scientist, we're always open to new ideas and to looking at different ways of using innovative therapies. Having said that, we need to be very cautious about claims and promises to patients who may be under the assumption or the belief that this therapy has been showed to be effective, and it hasn't. So as long as studies are being done in a carefully controlled way, under an institutional review board (IRB), ethically approved way, then I think this type of stem cell research is fine and appropriate. What we need to be careful about is the application of these non-proven therapies to patients under the guise of a proven therapy, which it is not yet.

I think that we're all open to new ideas and innovative therapies, but we're not quite there yet in terms of the science to advocate stem cell therapy really for anything yet. We're probably closest for ischemic heart disease. For ischemic stroke, we're not quite there yet. For traumatic brain injury, we're not there yet. For concussions, all bets are off. We haven't even begun to study this, really.