Japan approves world-first trial using iPS cells to treat spinal cord injuries

Why ?

Every year in Japan, around 5,000 people sustain spinal cord damage, and the number of people living with some sort of spinal cord-related injury is estimated to total over 100,000.

What ?

• World’s first clinical test in which artificially derived stem cells will be used to treat patients with spinal cord injuries.

How ?

• Will inject neural cells produced from so-called induced pluripotent stem cells — known as iPS cells — into four people who are injured while playing sports or in traffic accidents.
• “It’s been 20 years since I started researching cell treatment. Finally we can start a clinical trial,” Okano said
• Kyoto University’s Shinya Yamanaka won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2012 for developing iPS cells, which can grow into any type of body tissue and are seen as a promising tool for regenerative medicine and drug development.

Who can benefit 

The patients will have suffered lost mobility and sensation. The cells will be injected within two to four weeks of the patients’ accidents — the period in which the treatment is believed to be effective.

People with existing spinal cord injuries are mostly in the chronic phase and, therefore, will not be eligible to the upcoming clinical trial.