Wednesday June 13, 01:58 AM
Claiming to have made a significant medical breakthrough, the Lifeline Institute of Stem Cell Therapy and Research (LISTR) in collaboration with the Nichi in Centre for Regenerative Medicine, an Indo-Japanese Institute, today presented three paraplegics with "various levels of improvement following stem cell treatment".
Nineteen-year-old Prabhdeep Singh from Ludhiana was involved in an accident in October 2006. Paralysed with a severe spinal chord injury, Singh arrived at the Life Line Centre in Chennai in March 2007 in a wheel-chair after reading about the recovery of 24-year-old Akbar Ali.
"Today I can walk with calipers and a walker," Singh said. Explaining the treatment, Dr J S Rajkumar, Chairman of Lifeline Hospital, said: "We administered a dose of stem cells taken from his bone marrow on March 15 this year."
In February this year, the hospital had presented Ali's case to the media. Ali had, for the first time in the country, undergone "remarkable" recovery due to stem cell therapy after being paralysed from waist below due to a fall from a building. He had undergone autologous (own body) stem cell therapy in December, 2006. By February, he had recovered 80 per cent. Today he claimed to have recovered almost "100 per cent" sensation and motor ability.
Chennai-based K Srinivas (21) said he was paralysed below the chest after being afflicted by a spinal chord inflammation, transverse myelitis, in 1999. "I started walking in 2002 with calipers. But I used to get tired very fast." In March this year, Srinivas received the first dose of stem cells at LISTR. "Now, I feel less tired when I walk," he said.
A R Kothanda Reddy, hailing from Bangalore, fell from the roof of a 11-feet high building. He suffered multiple fractures in the lumbar spine. He was paralysed from waist below. In May 2007, LISTR injected a concentrated dose of stem cells into the injured spine portion. "Now I can flex my toes and I have sensation there," he said.
The patients pay about Rs 1 lakh for the treatment and get a maximum of two concentrated doses, said Dr Rajkumar. "This is the largest series of successful treatment of spinal chord documented in the scientific world," he claimed, adding that the findings would be presented during the first three-day International Stem Cell conference to be held in Sydney from June 24.
This was good news for stem cell research the world over, encouraging the Centre to conduct further studies, said Dr R Ravikumar, coordinator, LISTR.
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