Stem cell cure for stroke in five years?

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Boston: Stem cell injections have potential to repair the human brain following a stroke, according to US doctors.

Gary Steinberg at Stanford University has led the team of researchers who experimented with the brain cells of rats. They used embryonic stem cells and mixed them with natural chemicals, including growth factors.They then placed them into brain cells in hopes of helping stroke patients.

They tested the injections of stem cells on rats that had strokes to come up with their results.

They found that within two months they saw significant improvement on the part of the rats. It is expected that within five years the stroke victims’ brain damage would be fully recovered.

The authors wrote “This is the first report demonstrating that the transplantation of human neural stem cells derived from human embryonic stem cells can improve neurologic behavior after experimental use.”

Steinberg stated that they hope to test this out in human clinical trials within five years. “Human embryonic stem cell-based therapies have the potential to treat this complex disease.”