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Skull Repaired with Non-Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy

Another successful therapeutic application of stem cells without destroying a humon embryo.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 16, 2004--MacroPore Biosurgery, Inc. (Frankfurt: XMP), and The University of Giessen today announced the publication of a case report from Europe using adipose derived stem cells to treat a damaged region in a skull of a seven-year-old girl following a severe head injury that occurred one year earlier. The cells were harvested using a proprietary protocol developed by MacroPore Biosurgery. Three months following the stem cell treatment, CT-scan analysis showed signs of new bone formation and near complete calvarial continuity around the area of the skull trauma. As a result, the patient no longer needs to wear the protective helmet she had worn for the previous year. The operation was performed by Prof. Hans-Peter Howaldt, Head of the Department of Maxillofacial and Facial Plastic Surgery, Justus-Liebig-University Medical School, Giessen, Germany, and was published, together with colleagues from the Neurosurgery Department at the Institute, in the December issue of the Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery ((2004) 32, 370-373).

Note that this is the first time fat-derived stem cells were used to grow bone in a human. In this case, a girl, injured in a fall, had to wear a helmet to protect the 19 square-inch section of missing bone that exposed parts of her brain. The skull is now smooth to the touch, the missing parts replaced by thin but solid bone.

Update: NeophytePundit gives an interesting perspective.

Posted by tim at December 17, 2004 7:18 AM

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