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 to restart the embryonic stem cell-based clinical trial for spinal cord injury. Two clinical trials involving derivatives of human embryonic stem cells were approved in 2010. Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) located in Marlborough, Massachusetts, leads the trials aimed at improving the vision of patients with Stargardt's Macular Dystrophy and Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Originally, twelve patients were estimated to enroll at three hospitals in the U.S.; participating institutions included the Casey Eye Institute in Portland, Oregon, University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worchester, Massachusetts, and the New Jersey Medical School in Newark, New Jersey. Patients' eyes were injected with