Spinal cord injury research triggering an immune system response. Animal studies with injection of bone marrow stem cells have shown improvement in motor function; however not so in a human trial a year post-injury. More trials are underway. Adipose and umbilical tissue stem cells need further study before human trials can be performed, but two Korean studies were begun to investigate adipose cells in SCI patients. Transplantation of tissues such as olfactory ensheathing cells from the olfactory bulbs has been shown to produce beneficial effects in spinal cord injured rats. Trials have also begun to show success when olfactory ensheathing cells are transplanted into
Human embryonic stem cells clinical trials length, was one of the most extensive applications ever to be submitted to the FDA. Before Geron could test GRNOPC1 in humans, tests in animals had to occur. At the University of California at Irvine, Dr. Hans Keirstead and Dr. Gabriel Nistor, credited with the technique used to develop oligodendrocytes from human embryonic stem cells, injected the cells into rats with spinal cord injuries. The condition of the rats improved after treatment. The first patient, identified in an article by the Washington Post as Timothy J. Atchison of Alabama, enrolled in the trial in October 2010. The patient was treated