Stem cell therapy for immunity,paralysis

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Chennai, Feb 25 (UNI) A 25-year-old man suffering from paraplegia (immunity,paralysis from the waist down) due to a fall from a four-storeyed building, was put back on his feet at a private hospital here in what is claimed to be India's first successful stem cell therapy for spinal cord injury.

Akbar Ali, a construction worker in Dubai, fell from a height of 15 metres and suffered an injury to his spinal cord in October 2006.

He lost the ability to excrete on his own and was put on a urinary catheter drainage system. After undergoing surgery to fix his bones in Dubai, he was referred to Lifeline Multi-Speciality Hospital here.

The hospital, which had signed an MoU with Nichi In Center for Regenerative Medicine (NCRM), an Indo-Japan joint venutre, administered advanced bone marrow-derived stem cell therapy for the spinal cord injury.

Explaining the treatment process, Lifeline Stem Cell Project Coordinator and cardiologist R Ravikumar said 100 ml of bone marrow fluid was aspirated from the hip bone of the patient.

The stem cells were then isolated and processed in NCRM here using technical know-how from Dr Terunuma Hiroshi of Biotherapy Institute, Japan, and about 20 ml of this concentrate was injected into his spinal fluid, he added.

Two months after treatment, Ali was now able to walk on his own and had also regained good sensation in the legs. He did not need a catheter and could pass urine intermittently every two hours, Dr Ravikumar said.