A professor from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences announced that they have succeeded in taking stem cell-based therapies out of the laboratory and into clinical trials in an effort to help people with leukemia and other illnesses.

Zhao Chunhua said at a news conference in Beijing Tuesday that the Chinese-developed treatment, using an injection of mesenchymal cells, has gone into its first phase of clinical testing.

Scientists are also working on stem cell-based therapies in pre-clinical trials to treat coronary disease, diabetes, liver failure and other conditions, said Zhao, and this should pave the way for commercially viable medical products.

Stem cells are cells that have yet to differentiate into specific types, e.g. muscle, bone, blood. Therapies based on them aim to use them to repair damaged or malfunctioning organs, and are hoped to greatly improve the outcomes of future treatments.

How to obtain the right kinds of stem cell and how to encourage them to develop outside the body so that they may be used to treat malignant tumors have become vital questions, according to researchers.

Zhao's team has isolated stem cells from bone marrow that are able to differentiate into a variety of types of cell, and which can then be injected to help repair and renew diseased tissue.

The first phase of clinical testing will conclude in three months. "If everything goes well, we will move on to second and third phase trials, hopefully in a year," said Zhao.

Zhang Mu, an official with the Ministry of Science and Technology's Biological Technology Center, said, "Whether this breakthrough is successful or not depends on the clinical outcomes."

Jia Jingdun, an official from the Ministry of Science and Technology, said they are drafting regulations to ensure effective and ethical use of stem cell-based therapies, along with the health ministry.

(China Daily February 2, 2005)