In a bid to promote stem cell therapies, health officials open a new door for promising contenders
HOUSTON — When someone experiences a severe head injury, it’s not just the initial blow that batters the brain. The body’s immune response can go haywire, overwhelming and sometimes continuing to damage the brain for months.
Surgeons at Houston’s Memorial Hermann Hospital believe they might have a novel way to prevent that ongoing harm: by drawing bone marrow cells, including stem cells, from patients and infusing them back into their bodies.
The approach may sound unconventional — the cells aren’t even delivered directly to the site of the injury. But the Food and Drug Administration has granted a new designation to the clinical trial, one that signals that the agency sees as least some promise in the experimental treatment and that opens up for the therapy, if it
