mesenchymal stem cell therapy for multiple sclerosis

Human mesenchymal stem cell (msc) can be isolated from bone marrow (bm) and differentiated into multiple lineages. these properties make them promising tools in cell and gene therapy. up to now, no definite therapeutic intervention for late stages of multiple sclerosis (ms) has been found. we decided to inject ms patients with autologous expanded msc. five patients participated in this ongoing study. patients were injected intrathecally with the culture expanded bm mscs. patients were followed monthly for their clinical status and every 3 months re garding their magnetic resonance imaging. during 7 months follow up, one patient improved 1.5 edss, two patients improved by 1 and 2 scores, and two others remained unchanged till now. the first mri findings of patients showed no change. we can claim that the injection of expanded msc is a safe procedure. three patients showed some de gree of improvement and the other two had no progression. patients should be followed for at least one year and a larger sample is r quired in order to draw a definite conclusion.