Stem Cell Treatment In The Womb

The trial aims to minimise the symptoms of incurable brittle bone disease.

17:29 14 October 2015

A stem cell treatment trial that involves injecting foetal stem cells into babies still in womb will be carried in January and will be led by Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and Great Ormond Street Hospital in the UK. The trial hopes that the cells, which will be collected from terminated pregnancies, will help minimise the symptoms of incurable brittle bone disease.

 

Brittle bone disease affects around one in every 25,000 births and can be fatal with babies born with multiple fractures.

 

Prof Lyn Chitty, from Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: "This is a very serious disease. Our objective is to see if in utero (in the womb) stem cell therapy can ameliorate the condition and the number of fractures."

 

Meanwhile, Dr Cecilia Gotherstrom, from the Karolinska Institute, said: "If we could reduce the fracture frequency, strengthen bone and improve growth it would have a huge impact."

 

"It is the first in-­man trial and, if successful, it will pave the way for other pre­natal treatments when parents have no other option."

 

Commenting on the trial, Dr Dusko Ilic, a reader in stem cell science at King's College London, said:  "Any attempt to help the patients suffering this terrible, debilitating disease is more than welcome."