Spanish Research Team Use Peripheral Blood derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Sports Injury: WAYNE ROONEY?

It was only a matter of time before Stem Cells made it into the limelight for sports injury.

I have already lost count of the number of football-mad friends who have asked me if StemLife can treat Wayne Rooney's broken metatarsal so that he can play in the upcoming important matches (on which they may have placed their bets). Wayne Rooney's injury has stirred up much frustration and I suspect there are no lack of prayers for his quick recovery.

Truth: we have yet to see any report using stem cells for broken bones (including the little toes) especially since they can heal quite well on their own, given appropriate healing time.

Anyway, today I read an announcement from a group of Universities in Spain (Jaen, Almeria & Granada) who have formed a collaboration with the University of Malaga to work on improving cartilage damage in sports injuries for "elite sports people" (only the best!). This collaboration team is led by Dr. Antonio Aranega (University of Granada) and Dr. Juan Antonio Marchal Corrales (University of Jaen) and will seek to use peripheral blood derived mesenchymal stem cells, collected, cultured and applied in athletes with cartilage damage.

The project only lasts one year, which is quite short and funded by a grant of 15,650 Euros (USD 20,027 or RM 72,492- not a whole lot is it...) from the Spanish education and Sports Ministry (I hope Malaysian Sports Ministry will be 10X more generous if we should want to do something like this).

Questions: How much blood is taken from each athlete? How many cells are cultured? How many cells are injected, how and where?

We can assume that sports injury is a big issue in Spain, especially as soccer (think Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia etc), cycling and horseback riding are big tourism and revenue generators for the country. I'm just not sure how their trials will be run on those funds and how many patients they will be able to enrol in this study. Perhaps it is a prelude of what is to come if this trial is successful.

The group has also announced that they will eventually be working on a parallel exploration on embryonic stem cells -as some of their researchers were previously from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm- and have had the relevant experience. I'm wondering if embryonic stem cell pursuits will be equally funded and encouraged in a largely catholic country (>90%), and whether more encouragement will be given to the development of the adult stem cell protocol.

In Malaysia and Thailand, football commands a good following and there are probably many players out there whom this news may interest. I have friends who play Futsal (indoor soccer) and they sometimes have injuries which cause them to limp around for a few weeks or months. Other key Malaysian sports include racquet games like badminton, squash and table tennis.

Of course, we musn't forget Formula One and sailing, but that audience mostly suffers from strained necks, sprained ankles and tired legs from standing and chasing the good-looking crew around. Who knows, perhaps StemLife can treat or prevent these ailments with the aid of stem cells in the not too distant future.

Other research news on cartilage repair can be found here.

If your espanol is any good, you can check the uefa website for latest spanish soccer news and rankings here.