A University lecturer is planning to carry out cutting-edge research into the use of stem cells to treat spinal cord injuries.

Biochemist and stem cell biologist Renald Blundell said the study, to be carried out in Malta on rats, would look into improving an existing procedure offering a new lease of life to many patients.

Last month, the 36-year-old doctor signed an agreement with a German institute allowing Maltese patients to make use of avant-garde technology that injects stem cells into a problem area and allows the body to heal itself.

There is no need to store stem cells in advance, like in the case of umbilical cord cells which are taken when a baby is born, and the technology does away with the controversy surrounding embryonic stem cells. According to Dr Blundell, between 100 and 150 millilitres of bone marrow is taken from the patient’s hip and processed in a laboratory to extract the stem cells. After a few days the stem cells are transplanted back into the patient – precisely in the place they are needed.

In a process that has shown the body’s amazing ability to heal itself, the stem cells stick to areas where cells are damaged or missing and patch it up.

“If cells are injected where needed, they will receive signals from surrounding cells and transform into similar cells,” he said.

In diabetic patients, the pancreas has been prompted to restart producing insulin, with a few patients being completely cured of the disease. Others are taking a fifth of the insulin needed before the intervention that costs between €7,500 and €8,900.

But even more astonishing has been the recovery in patients with mobility impairments, including those with damaged spinal cords.

“Just days ago we did a procedure on a stroke patient who had been wheelchair-bound for 16 years. Within 24 hours she was able to move her hand,” Dr Blundell said.

He said the recovery in severely injured people was still not 100 per cent, but huge improvements were being registered.

The XCell Centre website is full of success stories. Among them is that of 59-year-old Tine Rhijnsburger who suffered a stroke in 2002, leaving her wheelchair-bound. She was only able to walk five metres at a time, but after the therapy she manages to walk for half-an-hour.

According to XCell Centre chief executive Cornelis Kleinbloesem, a third of patients do not see any changes, but in another third there was a positive result and the other third have excellent results.

Dr Blundell said the next step was to determine whether the improvement continued over the years since the procedure – which has been carried out on some 1,400 patients suffering from spinal injuries, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cerebral palsy – was only two years old. His study, for which he is trying to secure funding, would also look into this aspect since rats have a shorter lifespan than humans.

“We will be able to see whether improvement continues over time and whether people will regenerate completely over the years,” he said.

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