Japanese scientists use stem cell treatment to restore movement in spinal injury
40 comments
·March 24, 2025stared
Such operations have a history - the first successful one was carried in 2014 in Poland: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-29645760
caycep
Also, I'm pretty sure U Mich had a trial to do implants in ALS patients, but not sure if it ever got beyond Phase I
Forbo
I wonder what this would cost to have done. I have a relative that was left paralyzed after a spinal cord injury, would love for them to be able to try something like this.
Edit: looks like it has to be a pretty recent injury... "14-28 days prior"
johnisgood
So, perhaps not for MS, then, either, if one has had mobility issues for years. :(
m3kw9
Potentially this technique can be improved to include longer period injuries, it’s a good development.
maggiepatel447
I was diagnosed with ALS and had lots of pain in my legs. I unfortunately couldn’t walk and was in a wheelchair. The disease progressed quickly, and there’s been little or no progress in finding reliable medical treatment for this horrible disease. In January this year our family doctor decided I should try alternative treatment as riluzole 50 mg didn’t slow the progression; I agreed and decided to start the ALS/MND protocol offered at UineHealth Centre. It’s been 4 months into the treatment, and the disease is totally under control, with no signs of muscle weakness, muscle pain, or choking when I eat. I recently have been able to walk down our street and back, something which I couldn't do prior to this year. I’m active again, and it has given me a better chance of fighting this disease. The ALS/MND treatment has relieved my symptoms significantly. I can feel my strength again; I feel better now than I have felt in years. You can find the treatment at the uinehealthcentre. com
lambdaone
This seems to be the research group involved:
https://www.med.keio.ac.jp/gcoe-stemcell/english/member/okan...
catlikesshrimp
Why can't I upvote this topic? The only option is "flag" (and hide and favorite)
meltyness
Usually indicates that you already have, you can check your history in your profile.
hash872
So are stem cells a 'real' thing now? I can never tell, and I'm not sure that I trust a website called 'medicalxpress' (which has a nag screen that ominously warns me about the 'consequences' of my using an adblocker).
I have torn shoulder labrum that I've been living with for 8ish years now. It doesn't affect me enough to need surgery, but given the option I'd love to fix it without having to go under the knife. I sporadically hear about stem cell injections as a possible fix, and as a sports fan there are always stories about athletes using stem cells to repair serious injuries. Sometimes these stories involve the athletes traveling to another country (Germany, Thailand, Mexico, somewhere) where stem cell treatments are legal outside of the FDA's bureaucratic purview. (The FDA has been working on authorizing European sunscreen for the last 25 years, BTW). The UFC now advertises a Mexican stem cell clinic. I asked my ortho last year about them and she said 'maybe!', which I suppose is better than 'no they're a total fraud'. Are these claims even approaching reality? Is the science of stem cells getting closer at all?
drak0n1c
Medicalxpress is a subsidiary of the more known https://phys.org/ which is a decades-old aggregator of published material containing innovative studies and engineering techniques. They write their own summaries in an AP/Reuters style but with more quantified detail and less exaggeration than the usual pop media and university PR pieces. A bit like Quanta Magazine, great for keeping tabs on new findings with clear and consistent hyperlinks to the source material.
bix6
Marc Benioff said UCSF used Yamanaka’s techniques to regrow his Achilles in place. So it seems that we are getting there.
hash872
Unfortunately my disposable income to spend on experimental medical treatments is slightly less than Marc Benioff's :(
bix6
If only we could all be so rich. Have you looked into PRP? My neighbor got an injection for his shoulder, $3k here, although apparently you can find it for way less.
Aurornis
Be careful with anecdotes. The history of stem cell treatments is full of promising claims that later failed to differentiate from standard treatments.
A common technique in the past was to use stem cell therapy on a lot of candidate patients who had some chance of recovering normally. When some subset recovered normally, they would champion them as stem cell success stories.
It's an interesting field, but anecdotes are not the right way to look at it. Even when they come from famous figures.
sirolimus
Medicalexpress is a reputable medical news website. Regarding the adblocker, how else would u earn money.
caycep
You'd think a technical site like ycombinator, ppl would post directly from pubmed/europe pmc...I mean, ppl post CS papers from Arxiv regularly...
bragr
I think in practice most papers are too technical to be meaningfully read by people outside the field. I struggle with some CS papers especially depending subfield. I could probably get through this stem cell paper if I had 8 hours and a medical reference dictionary, and it still would probably involve several side quests reading up on related topics and citations before I could meaningfully deliver an opinion. That makes these science reporting sites a necessary evil IMHO.
Nursie
> So are stem cells a 'real' thing now?
Always were a real possibility and under active research but the unregulated treatments you read about in Mexico, Thailand etc were probably snake-oil rather than targeted, effective medicine.
The unregulated stuff has alway seemed to involve just injecting some sort of stem-cell milkshake into the affected area and hoping it does something useful. The attached article describes a more involved process.
Both things can be true - those clinics are doing bullshit medicine, and stem-cell treatments can maybe be made to work.
nwienert
Can also be true that those clinics work, based on my research I believe the more reputable ones do.
caycep
iPS cells in vitro for experiments have been a thing for over a decade now...
In vivo experiments face more regulations bc...well, stem cells are very close to cancer cells and bad things have happened....
inglor_cz
The question is whether this "more involved process" builds upon experience from the first years of almost-quackery. It wouldn't be the first time in healthcare.
People have eyes, observe their results and adapt.
Nursie
Seems unlikely, far more likely that it has built upon the history of actual research, than the exploitative practices of those clinics that latch on and sell snake-oil.
carabiner
I had type 2 SLAP tear (lemme guess, rock climbing?) confirmed by MRI with dye. It seemed to just... go asymptomatic after months of rest, gradual return to activity. Some guy on reddit said stem cells from mexico fixed his SLAP tear but he never went for a followup MRI so who knows.
hash872
BJJ. Good luck, but just so you know- SLAP tears don't heal on their own. There's not enough bloodflow to the area, and the actual physical substance of the labrum for the both of us has been ripped apart. It may or may not bother you (mine doesn't 80% of the time), but it also never heals. So you're at risk of tearing it further, which then becomes a Big Deal. I stopped doing BJJ for this reason
carabiner
I'm well aware of all of that after multiple consultations with my surgeon.
ninetyninenine
The FDA doesn't even go over domestic supplements. Most domestic supplements don't even contain the stated ingredients and many contain illegal ingredients.
Something like 25 years to authorize European sunscreen looks like a corrupt move. Some business interest definitely is influencing it to make it happen.
>Are these claims even approaching reality? Is the science of stem cells getting closer at all?
I've heard many many anecdotal claims of this working. We'll have to see.
BurningFrog
I have some hope that, among the assorted mayhem, the Trump administration makes the FDA a bit more permissive.
zombiwoof
Given RFK needs HGH and steroids to stay alive I think they will unregulate everything but the truth
null
Some more details from the general press: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20250321_21/