Muscular Dystrophy – Do Stem Cells Hold The Cure?

There is a new ray of hope for patients suffering from muscular dystrophy. A new research conducted on mice has shown that muscles damaged due to muscular dystrophy can be repaired by injecting specialized stem cells from skeletal muscle.

But there is still no surety that the treatment will yield positive results as far as human beings are concerned. This was stated by study author Amy Wagers, an assistant professor at Harvard University’s Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Department.

Nevertheless, it is an important development in the study of human stem cells. As of now, the best treatment for muscular dystrophy is with steroids.

“However, there are a number of promising experimental therapies under development, including gene and cell therapies and treatment with a high-tech drug,” Paul Muhlrad, research program coordinator with the Muscular Dystrophy Association was quoted as saying.

Muscular dystrophy is basically a genetic disease in which the skeletal muscles degenerate. Amongst the 30 kinds of muscular dystrophy that are prevalent, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, caused by the lack of a protein that helps muscles stay intact, mainly affects boys.

In the study, which was published in the July 11 issue of ‘Cell’, Wagers has explained how stem cells from healthy mice were injected into mice with a disease almost similar to Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The stem cells also left surplus cells which can be used later whenever needed.

But there is one drawback in the treatment as it won’t help to restore muscle in the heart, which is targeted in some forms of muscular dystrophy.

Now the challenge is to invent effective methods for separating the required number of cells from human donors to be given to all the affected muscles in patients. Also, the researchers have to find ways which guarantee that the transplanted cells are accepted by the recipient’s immune systemdefine.