A long-term study, published in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, suggests that stem cells could be a safe and effective treatment for angiitis-induced critical limb ischemia (AICLI).
In the study, researchers at Zhongshan Hospital (affiliated with Fudan University) in Shanghai tracked 27 AICLI patients for 5 years after each had received an intramuscular injection of PuCeT to treat their disease.
“The primary endpoint—major-amputation-free survival rate—as well as secondary endpoints such as peak pain-free walking time and the scale of the patient’s pain, were routinely evaluated during the 5-year follow-up period,” says Zhihui Dong, MD, who along with his Department of Vascular Surgery colleague Weiguo Fu, MD, served as corresponding authors on the study.
The results showed that the major-amputation-free survival rate of these patients was 88.89%, the pain free walking time Increased nearly six-fold and the level of pain they experienced was reduced by more than half.
“Notably, in 17 patients (65.38 percent) not only were their limbs saved, but they also fully recovered their labor competence and returned to their original jobs by week 260. PuCeT demonstrated long-term efficacy and durability as a treatment of AICLI, not only in achieving limb salvage but also in recovering the labor competence and improving the patient’s quality of life,” Fu adds.
“These long-term results, involving 27 patients, suggest a potential new cell therapy for this debilitating disease,” states Anthony Atala, MD, editor-in-chief of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest institute for Regenerative Medicine. “This is especially significant because until now, many of these patients had no treatment option.”
[Source(s): AlphaMed Press, PRWeb]
