TY - JOUR A2 - Liu, Haifeng AU - Kakabadze, Zurab AU - Kipshidze, Nickolas AU - Mardaleishvili, Konstantine AU - Chutkerashvili, Gocha AU - Chelishvili, Irakli AU - Harders, Albrecht AU - Loladze, George AU - Shatirishvili, Gocha AU - Kipshidze, Nodar AU - Chakhunashvili, David AU - Chutkerashvili, Konstantine PY - 2016 DA - 2016/06/28 TI - Phase 1 Trial of Autologous Bone Marrow Stem Cell Transplantation in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury SP - 6768274 VL - 2016 AB - Introduction. A total of 18 patients, with complete motor deficits and paraplegia caused by thoracic and lumbar spine trauma without muscle atrophy or psychiatric problems, were included into this study. Materials and Methods. The bone marrow was aspirated from the anterior iliac crest under local anesthesia and the mononuclear fraction was isolated by density gradient method. At least 750 million mononuclear-enriched cells, suspended in 2 mL of saline, were infused intrathecally. Results and Discussion. The study reports demonstrated improvement of motor and sensory functions of various degrees observed in 9 of the 18 (50%) cases after bone marrow stem cell transplantation. Measured by the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) scale, 7 (78%) out of the 9 patients observed an improvement by one grade, while two cases (22%) saw an improvement by two grades. However, there were no cases in which the condition was improved by three grades. Conclusions. Analysis of subsequent treatment results indicated that the transplantation of mononuclear-enriched autologous BMSCs is a feasible and safe technique. However, successful application of the BMSCs in the clinical practice is associated with the necessity of executing more detailed examinations to evaluate the effect of BMSCs on the patients with spinal cord injury. SN - 1687-966X UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/6768274 DO - 10.1155/2016/6768274 JF - Stem Cells International PB - Hindawi Publishing Corporation KW - ER -