Recovering From Stroke With Stem Cell Therapy In Thailand

Strokes cripple hundreds of thousands of people worldwide every year, and the treatment costs society billions of dollars. They are the second leading cause of death worldwide after heart disease, and until now, early detection and conventional treatment of a stroke had been a patient's only choice for a mostly normal life after stroke. However, stem cell therapy for stroke has been gaining ground as a treatment, with practitioners of stem cell therapy in Thailand like Returning Hope building their expertise in treating the disease since 2005. This was when one of the first patients to recover mobility thought to be permanently lost after stroke was treated. We look at how research has progressed since then.

In 2005, Stem Cell Therapy International announced that Ian McBride, from Ireland, had regained mobility in his limbs after he had adult stem cells injected in a new procedure in Kiev, Ukraine. The treatment was 18 months after his stroke, which left his left arm and leg paralyzed, and his own doctors held out no hope that he would recover the use of these limbs. The abstract that the doctors published after these results encouraged other researchers to re-investigate stem cell therapy for stroke victims.

In 2006, following the publication of the amazing results of Mr. McBride's stem cell therapy for stroke, researchers at Karolinska Institute identified a biochemical mechanism that regulates how many new cells are produced by intestinal cells. The researchers foresaw that it would eventually help create drugs for neurological disorders, and even anemia. The signal transduction process identified by Dr Jonas Frisen in this study was seen to have potential for helping the body form new nerve cells for stroke and Parkinson's disease, as well as helping after injury to skin and muscle cells.

One of the newest developments in the scientific world with regard to stem cell therapy is the success of a team at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in genetically programming embryonic stem cells to become nerve cells when transplanted into the brain. One of the major positive indications in this stem cell research was that none of the mice formed tumors after being treated, and also showed tangible therapeutic improvement following the transplantation.

Currently, stem cell therapy providers in Thailand are building on the early success of the Ukrainian team of doctors. Returning Hope provides stem cell therapy for stroke through up to seven major hospitals in Thailand, including Bangkok Hospital, Bumrungrad Hospital, and Bangkok Mediplex. In Thailand stem cell therapy for stroke, stem cells are taken from the patient's own body and re-transplanted. The cells can take on the characteristics of neurons, astrocytes, or oligodendroglia, and are chemically directed to take over the function of damaged cells.