Finally, some serious hope coming out of the stem cell studies. (Apologies if this was posted before, I could not find it)
'For the first time, researchers have shown it is possible to repair damaged lung tissue in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) using the patients’ own lung cells.
The European Respiratory Society International Congress in Milan, Italy [1], heard that 17 patients who took part in a phase I clinical trial were able to breath better, walk further and had better quality of life after receiving the experimental treatment.'
“Stem cell and progenitor cell-based regenerative medicine may be the biggest, if not the only, hope to cure COPD,” he told the congress. “P63+ progenitor cells are known for their ability to regenerate the tissues of the airways, and previously we and other scientists have shown in animal experiments that they can repair the damaged epithelial tissue in the alveoli – the tiny air sacs in the lungs that play a crucial role in the exchange of gases between air breathed in and the blood supply to the lungs.”
In this first phase I clinical trial, the researchers set out to investigate the efficacy and safety of taking P63+ progenitor cells from the lungs of 20 COPD patients, using them to grow millions more in the laboratory, before transplanting them back into the patients’ lungs.
“In our trial, 35% of the patients had severe COPD and 53% had extremely severe COPD. Usually, many patients with such severe COPD will die quite quickly if their disease progresses. We used a tiny catheter that contains a brush to collect the progenitor cells from the patients’ own airways. We cloned the cells to create up to a thousand million more, and then we transplanted them back into the patients’ lungs via bronchoscopy in order to repair the damaged lung tissue.”
‘The cell treatment was well tolerated by all patients. After 12 weeks, the median (average) diffusing capacity of the lungs (DLCO), which tests how well air is exchanged between the lungs and the bloodstream, increased from 30% before treatment to 39.7%, and then increased further to 40.3% at 24 weeks in the treated patients. The median distance covered in a six-minute walk distance test (6MWD) increased from 410 metres before treatment to 447 metres at 24 weeks. The median score in a quality-of-life test (St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire or SGRQ) reduced by seven points, indicating an improvement. In two patients with mild emphysema, a type of lung damage that is normally permanent and progressive, the treatment repaired the lung damage.
“Prof. Zuo said: “We found that P63+ progenitor cell transplantation, not only improved the lung function of patients with COPD, but also relieved their symptoms, such as shortness of breath, loss of exercise ability and persistent coughing. This means that the patients could live a better life, and usually with longer life expectancy.
“If emphysema progresses, it increases the risk of death. In this trial, we found that P63+ progenitor cell transplantation could repair mild emphysema, making the lung damage disappear. However, we cannot repair severe emphysema yet.”
A similar therapeutic strategy is also being tested in patients with lethal lung fibrotic diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. We are going to test the treatment’s efficacy in larger groups of people with more lung diseases. We hope to develop the treatment for clinical use within about two to three years.”
Full story here:
Transplanting patients’ own lung cells offers hope of ‘cure’ for COPD - ERS - European Respiratory Society (ersnet.org)
and also here:
Stem cells can be used to repair damaged lung tissue in COPD patients (news-medical.net)