Stem Cell Therapy for Respiratory Disease

Researchers in Boston published a report in late 2011 in the New England Journal of Medicine detailing their findings regarding stem cells and respiratory function. The scientists, working at the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, identified human lung stem cells that had the capacity to differentiate into a variety of lung cell types. These cells could then go on to create the complex structures of the lungs including the broncheoles, alveoli, and pulmonary blood vessels. The ramifications of such research would spread further than just COPD, with possible therapeutic interventions based on stem cells arising for asthma, cystic fibrosis, lung cancer, and a variety of respiratory illnesses in the future. COPD affects over 200 million people around the world and is thought responsible for more than three million deaths each year. Given such figures it is alarming that there is no effective therapy to slow or reverse progression of the illness, which is one reason that such stem cell research is deemed essential by patient advocates.

COPD and Stem Cell Therapy in the Future

Autologous stem cell treatment is legal in the US where the stem cells are extracted and transplanted without manipulation, but it is the laboratory manipulation of the stem cells that is most likely to result in a treatment effect of benefit to the patient, causing considerable frustration in the medical community. There are currently no clinical trials underway or seemingly in planning stages for stem cell treatment for COPD but the findings of the researchers in Boston may prompt such advances in the near future.

Intravenous stem cell injections may have the effect of relieving inflammation and promoting healing in some cases but the evidence of specific effects on patients with COPD is lacking, as is evidence of the safety of such procedures in patients with already compromised health. With limited options for treatment at home and the knowledge that scientific developments take considerable time to become available to the general public it is hardly surprising that, despite the possible risks of experimental procedures, many patients are travelling overseas for stem cell treatment for COPD.