Just another adult stem cell success story:

A dose of their own stem cells “reset” the malfunctioning immune system of patients with early-stage multiple sclerosis and, for the first time, reversed their disability, according to researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago.

All 21 patients in the study had the “relapsing-remitting” form of the disease that makes their symptoms alternately flare up and recede. Three years after being treated, on average, 17 of the patients had improved on tests of their symptoms, 16 had experienced no relapse and none had deteriorated, the study found.

“This is the first study to actually show reversal of disability,” said Richard Burt, an associate professor in the division of immunotherapy at Northwestern, and the lead author of the study published yesterday in the British journal, the Lancet Neurology. “Some people had complete disappearance of all symptoms.”

Researchers are using stem cells taken from people’s own bodies to try to fight conditions such as heart disease, orthopedic ailments and to reconstruct women’s breasts after cancer surgery.

Read more and check out FRC’s long list of adult stem cell success stories for 2008