The Myelin Project - Nerve cell transplant gives hope to MS patients

July 24, 2001

Nerve cell transplant gives hope to MS patients

A WOMAN suffering from multiple sclerosis has received the world's first

nerve cell transplant which doctors hope will enable her to recover.

MS causes progressive damage to myelin, the coating on nerve endings, which

impairs their communication and can leave sufferers immobilised.

Researchers at Yale University School of Medicine have transplanted nerve

cells containing healthy myelin from one part of the patient's brain into

her right frontal lobe, which contained damaged cells.

McGovern, the spokeswoman for the Myelin Project, which funded the

£350,000 experiment, said the two-day operation on the 53-year-old took

place last week and was designed to prove the safety of the procedure.

Ms McGovern said: " It is hoped that the myelin will proliferate in the

frontal lobe of the patient's brain and we hope that she will eventually

recover her functions.

" Since the cells which have been transplanted came from the patient herself

the risk of them being rejected is small.

" In addition, these cells and the myelin they produce are not a target of

the inflammation that characterises MS.

" This offers amazing hope to sufferers of progressive MS, " she added.

The woman, who has not been named, is a qualified nurse from the US who was

debilitated by the progressive form of the disease to the extent that she

would have had to use a wheelchair.

The woman is said to be recovering well from the operation.

The researchers, led by MS expert Dr Vollner, took the healthy cells

from her sural nerve, which supplies sensory stimulus to parts of the leg

and foot.

The Myelin Project, which has been concentrating on a cure for MS based on

accelerating the repair of myelin, had contributed three years' work and a

total of £1.4 million to getting the human transplant under way.

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