Comparative Study on the Plasticity of the Spinal Cord in Individuals with SCI who Received Different Cell-Transplantation Treatments Combined with Laserpuncture as Assessed by Pinprick Evaluation
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1. Methodology:
This study, based on pinprick evaluation, was carried out by the same scientist, Dr Cécile Jame-Collet.
The test groups were divided into:
a) Quadriplegia, paraplegia and other; each group
will be defined, e.g. laserpuncture only or associated with a
complementary technique;
b) Males and females;
c) Age: 0-20; 21-30; 31-40; 40+;
A chronological legend of sensations will be
provided for treated patients.
2. Groups studied:
a) Laserpuncture;
b) Laserpuncture and autologous olfactory-tissue
transplantation (i.e., Dr Lima’s technique, Lisbon, Portugal);
c) Laserpuncture and transplantation of
fetal-derived OEGs (i.e., Dr Huang’s technique, Beijing, China);
d) Laserpuncture and transplantation of
hematopoietic or bone-marrow-derived stem cells (i.e., Dr
Bryukhovtskiy’s technique, Moscow, Russia).
3. Analysis of the results:
Analysis of the results suggests that there is a significant modification in the skin response to pinprick stimuli in individuals with SCI regardless of their level of injury, the time elapsed since injury and the various therapeutic techniques received.
4. Conclusion:
Whether the patients have a complete or incomplete spinal-cord transection and received cell transplantation plus laserpuncture or just laserpuncture alone, increase skin sensitivity was observed as assessed by the pinprick test.
( Principal Investigator: Professor Edwin C Hui. This study is a collaboration with the Rutgers University of New Jersey, U.S. and Laboratoire de Recherche sur le Laserponcture, France)
The debate on the use of embryonic stem cells mainly surrounds the moral status of the extracorporeal embryo, and thus the moral permissibility of human embryonic stem cell research. This study seeks to survey the attitude of the participants regarding human stem cell research and its related applications.
The study explores the following topics: moral status of human embryo, use of human embryos for research purposes, use of nuclear transfer techniques to create human embryos, deriving human stem cells from embryos produced by IVF, use of adult stem cells, deriving stem cells from embryos produced by somatic cell nuclear transfer, stem cell management and oversight mechanisms.
Status: Study in progress
Source : http://www.hku.hk/bioeth/Projects/Temp_content.htm
Last update: 16 Oct. 2008