Adult Blood Stem Cells for Muscular Dystrophy

I've had some enquiries before about the use of stem cells to help patients with muscular dystrophy, but never as able to tell them very much. Now I've read that italian scientists from the Stem Cell Research Institute in Rome, have taken human adult stem cells from the bloodstream (much like what StemLife does presumably) and injected the stem cells into mice with muscular dystrophy.

What's interesting is that the scientists injected the cells intravenously into the dogs (young golden retreivers) and the cells circulated to regenerate the muscles of these dogs. Even more interesting was that the researchers proceeded further to obtain the blood cells of patients with muscular dystrophy, insert the correct gene (thereby sliencing the defective gene) and injected them into the mice. The result was that the cells made their way to the skeletal muscle and were able to partly regenerate the muscles.

This is really very interesting work and raises a few possibilities in my mind.

a) Can a muscular dystrophy patient use a younger patient's healthy stem cells and inject intravenously for the same effect?
b) How many cells might they need and would they need a really large stem cell dose to exhibit regeneration of the muscles?
c) Do the cells need to be autologous for effectivity in humans?
d) Any supplementary treatment to be administered?

The only way to really know -as in all research- is to give it a go because muscular dystrophy patients (depending on the severity) don't have time to wait.

I watched a movie entitled "Rory O'Shea was here" the other night (on satellite quite late) about two boys -one with cerebral palsy and the other with muscular dystrophy- about how they form a symbiotic relationship and eventually friendship. It was a moving and touching portrayal of people with the condition, their limitations, frustrations and will. I really enjoyed it and thought that it was well worth watching. Get your tissues ready.


If you'd like to know more about muscular dystrophy and how to recognize it, have a look at this site.