The Age reports that Australian company Mesoblast is set to begin a new trial of an adult stem cell therapy.
Adult stem cell specialist Mesoblast can start testing its technology in humans, after receiving ethics approval for its first orthopaedic study....
The independent trial will involve up to 10 patients with long bone fractures that have failed to heal properly and will primarily test the safety of the stem cell therapy. Results could be available by July.Pre-clinical animal studies have already shown that Mesoblast's technology is safe and able to generate new bone growth, but this trial will be the first time that it is tested in humans....
The trial, which will start as soon as the first patient is recruited, will involve extracting the subject's own stem cells, harvesting and expanding them at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute's cell therapies division, and then implanting them back into the affected area of the body.This process should take about eight weeks.
