Global Hospitals ventures into stem cell therapy

Hyderabad, May 24 (UNI) Global Hospitals here claimed to have tried, for the first time, stem cell therapy to provide relief to spinal cord injury victims in the country.

Briefing newsmen here yesterday, Global Hospitals Managing Director K Ravindranath said the hospital had now forayed into stem cell therapy to repair damaged and diseased cells by transplantng them with healthy new cells. The initial results were satisfactory and encouraging.

''Stem cell is the primitive cell from which all organs like heart, brain, kidney, liver and tissues develop. In stem cell therapy, cells carefully chosen and processed are injected into the damaged or diseased organ where they proliferate and restore the functional units to normalcy by repairing the damaged cells,'' he explained.

''Using embryonic or foetal raises issues of safety and ethics.

Therefore we have decided to go in for adult stem cell therapy which costs only a fraction of organ transplantation.

Global Medical Education and Research Centre Chairman K S Ratnakar said the therapy held great promise for victims of spinal cord injuries.

Dr Ratnakar said it promised regeneration of new muscle in cardiomyopathy cases which accounted for about a third of cardiac cases.

Orthopaedic and Spinal Surgeon G P V Subbayya said the hospital chose three men in their 20s who were paralysed following road accidents.

Stem cell therapy had helped them regain sense of touch below the groin, experience burning sensation in legs and feet and increased sweating which were not there before transplantation, he claimed.

UNI ASJ SK VA RAI0853