New stem cell therapy pioneered
University of Minnesota Physician-researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School have published promising results showing the healing power of stem cells to repair skin – demonstrating that a lethal skin disease can be successfully treated with stem cell therapy.
Researchers John E. Wagner, M.D., and Jakub Tolar, M.D., Ph.D., in collaboration with researchers in Portland, Oregon, the United Kingdom, and Japan, have for the first time used stem cells from bone marrow to repair the skin of patients with a fatal skin disease called recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, or RDEB. This is the first time that researchers have shown that marrow stem cells can home to the skin and upper gastrointestinal tract and alter the natural course of the disease.
